Veritonee
by ItTicklesLikeCrazy
Summary: Amity Park gets destroyed by a crazed lunatic, and Team Phantom is forced to part ways. Danny decides that since Amity no longer needs him, he'll put his special gifts to use by being a hero elsewhere. Elsewhere: Jump City. Danny is making a reputation as a vigilante as Phantom, and a few friends as Fenton, and the Teen Titans are showing a little too much interest in both of them.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, soooo, I should probably not be starting a new story. Please feel free to bombard me with criticism and hypothetical tomatoes. real tomatoes don't go through the screen, but you can give me a word hit. (i.e. word PUNCH!) and then I'll drop to the floor in agony.**

**I think it's time to introduce the prospect of the one and only disclaimer: OKAY, SO THIS IS HOW IT WORKS. I ALWAYS DO THESE IN CAPS, TELLING YOU I DO NOT AND PROBABLY WILL NOT EVER OWN DANNY PHANTOM, THE TEEN TITANS, OR ANY SCENERY, EVENTS, PLOT TWISTS, OR CHARACTERS INVOLVED IN SUCH. YOU SHOULD KNOW I ALWAYS ONLY DO ONE OF THESE PER STORY, SO IF, FOR SOME ODD REASON I CANNOT FATHOM, YOU ONLY READ STORIES FOR THE DISCLAIMERS, YOU WILL BE THOROUGHLY DISAPPOINTED, AS THERE'S ONLY ONE OF ME SCREAMING AT YOU GUYS TO ENJOY. THANK YOU. ENJOY.**

_Veritonee_. The name floated around in my head as I looked over the wreckage, not breathing a single molecule of air. If I did, I'd drop dead, since the toxic dust was still settling. _Veritonee. He did this to your town, your friends, family, even rivals. _

_Veritonee._ I could actually see and make out the wreckage of all the individual buildings. Over there was Sam's house, with the white fancy trim she hated. There was Jazz's place of worship, the library, where she spent all her time when she wasn't home. Next was Tucker's humble abode, which had been filled with updated computers courtesy of the techno-geek himself. The ruins of the school, where several teachers had given up on my completely for my odd schedule, calling me irresponsible, even though I took on more responsibility than they knew. And, over there, propped up against a rock as if even in destruction it was important, was the FentonWorks sign, which had once glowed neon above the city.

_Veritonee_. The one thing I didn't understand was why. His motive was unclear, just destroy, destroy, destroy. And I couldn't even say he was obsessed with destruction, like the Box Ghost with boxes and bewareness. Why? Because he wasn't a ghost. A normal human had released the equivalent of a nuclear bomb of toxic waste on a seemingly innocent town for no apparent reason. Well, seemingly innocent to him, anyway, He didn't know of Amity's status as haunted or even that a 'superhero'-as what he called me-dwelled there.

_Veritonee._ Even the government didn't know what the hell was up with him. They'd thanked me up and down about a thousand times, marveling at me because, apparently, it took six super-powered adults and an entire firing squad to take him down last time, and there had been casualties, but I'd managed to subdue him and get everybody out alive, with only the town that I loved as a consequence. A pretty big consequence to me, but apparently he'd taken down a small island last time, and since everybody was _so_ convinced I'd done a good job, I could do nothing but smile fake smiles and nod a lot.

Somebody tapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped at the surprise. I whirled, ready to fight, and saw a figure. I couldn't tell if it was female or male because they had a normal build, and they were wearing a large gas mask to protect them from the toxic dust floating in the air. Raising a hand in weak greeting, the figure nodded to me respectfully and held up a finger, pointing away from the area. I looked the direction they were pointing and saw a crane and wrecking ball. Oh, yeah, they were demolishing the ruins so nobody from afar got the bright idea of wandering through this place, and then dying from toxins.

I nodded silently, since talking required breathing, and if I breathed there was a serious chance I'd collapse on the ground in agony, though not as big a possibility as normal humans, and then took to the sky. My legs melted into a long ghostly tail and I flew away from the figure, and the rest of the figures, who were all wearing heavy gear masks. Well, duh, because they were even more likely than me to die if they in any way got the dust into their system. Amity Park was done, done forever.

Phasing straight through the military-issued, protective, metal dome that shielded Amity, and all it's toxic dust, from the outside world, or, more accurately, the outside world from it, I sighed. My home was dead, and everybody I'd ever known or even associated with were going in different directions. Sam was moving to Miami, where her parents could work better deals and enjoy the sun, and where she would no doubt either tan or burn. Tucker and his parents were going to Kentucky, to get him into a special tech school. Dash was going to California to do sports things, Paulina back to Mexico, Mikey straight into college, since it turned out he could skip this year and next year anyway, and he had a full scholarship.

Jazz had come back from Princeton to see the wreckage, and talk to Mom and Dad about where they were going to go. When she'd heard everything, she'd been so happy with me, but she knew me too well. She'd instantly known how upset I was about Amity being labeled "uninhabitable", and had given me the pep talk of my life. I'd hardly survived it.

"Phantom!" screamed a voice just as I was touching down on the ground right outside the camp, ready to transform. I turned and saw Valerie Grey hurrying up to me, and I felt my legs involuntarily tense into an unnoticeable fighting position. She noticed the sudden change though, and sighed, putting her hands up to show she held no weapons.

"I've been trying to talk to you, but haven't been able to get to you with all the craziness and government stuff," she explained, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I guess I kinda wanted to say sorry."

"Sorry?" I repeated, shocked.

"Yeah, sorry," she parroted. "As in, I am. So sorry. And yeah, I do believe I owe you more than an apology. The Fentons feel the same way, or at least they parents do. Jazz always believed in you, and Danny…well, he's harder to pin down then you!" We both laughed nervously, though for different reasons. I think she though I would just stare at her, scowling, and I was a little put off by that comparison.

"Why?" I wondered. 'Why apologize. It's not like you did anything wrong."

Valerie made a little choking sound of thorough disbelief. "Oh, yes, nothing wrong. Except for the fact I tried to destroy you practically every waking moment for around what, two years now? You're the only thing that kept me from dying from recklessness! I see it now, and I wanted to say sorry for trying to kill, er, um, re-kill you, and thanks for all the saving you did. Not just me, everybody."

"Oh, uh, forgiveness bestowed and your welcome, i guess," I muttered, sounding like a complete and utter idiot,

She didn't seem to notice. "So," Valerie began. "Where are you going? According to the Fentons, whatever was causing this area to be so vulnerable to natural portals, as well as their own portal, is gone now. A whole bunch of science that I could hardly keep up with." She laughed lightly. "You don't have to stay here anymore, protecting us and fighting your brethren, so where are you going to go? Back to the Ghost Zone?" She almost sounded sad at this possibility, which was ironic, because she'd spent most of the time before this trying to cram me back into the Zone.

"No," I replied, and saw just a flicker f a smile. "I'm not like normal ghosts. I can sustain myself forever outside the Zone, while ghosts have to go back in and eat ectoplasm or ectoplasm-contaminated food or drink. I don't have any place to live in the Zone, and I'd have to fight a bunch before i was considered anything but a sparring partner or easy prey, seeing what I got up to before this happened."

"Yeah," Valerie sighed. "I can't really relate. I know what it's like to have your life turned against you, but then again, not really. It was just my friends, not my entire race. Are you planning to go anywhere. I bet you could pass as a human, just tell them you dyed your hair."

"I've considered," I admitted. "Don't tell anybody, but I've actually been sleeping in the Fenton's basement for the last few months." Not a lie. I'd taken to sleeping right next to the portal, just in case of accidental openings, which happened a lot more than you'd think, and escapees. "I might just follow them, and help them out."

Valerie's eyes widened. "Really? That's weird, I wouldn't peg you the type to mooch of somebody else. You're more like a person who has to do everything by themselves, and not let anybody help them."

I shrugged, not admitting that she'd probably just spelled out my personality with a single sentence. Maybe not, I guess, and hope, that I have more to me than that. "I don't know where to go. I'd like to help out a lot more, but there really doesn't seem to be any place I can go where I can help as much as I want to, or did here. Or, at least, i haven't heard of a place."

"You could go to Jump City," Valerie suggested casually. "I'm betting the Teen Titans would be happy for another team member, especially one who can take down a big shot like the government guys are making this guy out to be. I mean, Veritonee sounds cool, too, and he did take out an entire town. Even more the time before, right?"

I nodded silently, but my mind was moving at dangerously high speeds. "Jump City?Teen Titans?" I finally blurted. "It sounds familiar, but I've never really…"

"Yeah," she seemed to get what I was saying exactly. "Jump City, California, is not only a city with an abnormally high crime rate, but a super villain hot-spot as well. The Teen Titans are a group of five heros committed to helping Jump City not skyrocket to number one on most dangerous cities, though I doubt they could have beaten Amity Park if you hadn't been saving everybody all the time. You could join the Teen Titans and be an awesome hero, and they would probably even help you finish your high school knowledge, since you, ya know…"

"Died before I could finish, or even really begin, Freshman year," I finished dryly. "The possibility sounds promising, but I actually think that I have somewhere else to go," I told her.

"Oh, that's cool. But, I mean, if you're ever around the area of Breason, Oregon, come visit me," she said with a slight smile. "Pick up a phonebook and go straight to the G's section. I'll be glad to see you, if you'd be okay with it."

"Expect it," I warned her, and we both smiled. I knew that every last drop of tension and hate between us had melted into a broken, but fixable friendship. In fact, this conversation had just repaired it, just a little.

"Well, bye," she muttered, turning from me and walking back towards the large group of government provided tents, which they had given the Amity Park people while they were figuring out where they were going, and what they had salvaged from the incident.

"Bye," I called after her.

She turned back to me, the expression on her face clearly reading that she'd forgotten to tell me something. "A side note," she began. "Dad and I had to get out as fast as possible, since the toxic stuff was more near our apartment, and I couldn't grab the suit. So, I guess the Red Huntress is no more."

"Somehow, I don't feel too bad," I joked. She laughed and smiled, before turning and walking away. I stood there for a moment, happy that I'd gained a friend back, and then hurried to find Sam. As I rushed through the camp, I marveled on how different people's reactions were towards me than four days before. Instead of quiet waves and smiles, and the occasion salute, I got vocal "hellos" and was stopped several times to have somebody I hardly recognized thank me for saving their life before in an incident I didn't really remember. Before, I'd been an unreachable idol, a poor soul, who'd died at a young age. But now, people were treating me like I was what i thought I was: a normal teenager who just so happens to save a life once or twice. The once or twice would be normal for normal kids, if if wasn't more like once or twice a day. Or once or twice an hour. Maybe that was an exaggeration.

"Hey," Sam called out as I slowed and began walking quickly towards her, as opposed to sprinting.

"I was afraid I'd miss you," I told her. I would have been breathing hard, except for the fact I didn't need to breathe. Well, unless I was drawing in air to make a sound with my vocal cords, like talking.

"Five minutes," she assured me, a sad smile hanging onto her face.

"I'm still gonna miss you," I said, my voice breaking slightly. "Who am I going to go to when my parents are being too crazy for reality?"

"We'll still be able to call, and video chat, and text, and face-time, and any other crazy thing Tuck wants to do." We shared a small laugh, but the mood was a little too gloomy for it to last.

Sam grabbed my chin and forced me to look into her deep amethyst eyes. "Hey, chin up." Her perfect purple lips curved into a smile. "You can break the sound barrier when flying, you should be able to visit me. I'll see you all the time, so don't be so down."

"I thought, you being a goth, you'd like the gloomy mood." We both cracked smiles at this, knowing in no way was it true.

"Not here, not now, and never with you," she recited. "Grin that stupid lopsided grin so I can be happy in my last few minutes with my best friend."

I grinned my version of a lopsided grin, which probably looked a lot more like an elephant with no truck that's had _way_ to many peanuts, and Sam snorted with laughter. I joined her in giggles after a little while, and my soul lifted considerably while I just laughed with her.

Glancing over, I was awestruck as an image of her was burned into my yes forever. She was standing in front of the sun, and it was positioned just behind her head so she looked like she was glowing. Her raven hair glimmered in it, showing all the colors of a rainbow, just like a real raven's feathers. It was sleek as obsidian, too, and that alone was amazing. Her ivory skin was illuminated too, and like porcelain. Her eyes, deep violet with tiny hints of gorgeous indigo, were open and looking at me, and the corners were crinkled just slightly form her wide smile. Suddenly, as if I wasn't even under my own control, I leaned forward and pressed my lips onto her perfect purple lips.

Her laugh stopped suddenly, replaced by a small gasp, before her stiff body relaxed onto mine, and I put a hand up right between her shoulder blades, supporting her. One of her hands snaked up and found my head, running though my hair in an amazing way. Her lips were soft, and warm compared to my colder body temperature. I didn't really know how to kiss, since I'd hardly ever done it before, so I went along with what we did when we did fake-out make-outs, and I guess she did too. And, let it be recorded, it was amazing.

Finally, we broke apart, and I immediately tried to step away from her, but she placed a hand on my chest, grabbing the jumpsuit material, and kept me close. "And the only thing that could possibly ruin this moment," she whispered. "Is that I can tell from the look on your face that you're considering on never doing that again, because you're afraid I'll get heard. Fair warning, ghost boy, if you don't visit me, I will track you down, burst into whatever school you're attending, and kiss you right in the middle of the hallway where everybody can see. And yes, I will time it just so you and I are the prime gossip targets of the school for at least a month, because attention will be your punishment."

"Sammy-kins!" called the voice of Pamela Manson. "Time to go." Sam let me go just as Pamela came around the corner of their fancy car and saw us. "Phantom," she greeted politely. Man, had I been shocked when I'd learned that Pamela and Jeremy Manson were fond of Phantom, and that had been more than a year back. This incident hadn't even occurred. "It's nice to see you. It's regretful we won't be able to see you beyond now."

"Don't be so sure about that," Sam whispered under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear. I had to force myself not to smile at her tone.

"Maybe I'll run into you," I offered. "I was just coming to say goodbye."

"How sweet of you." Mrs. Manson smiled politely. "But really, Samantha," Sam gritted her teeth. "It's time to go. I trust you've already said your farewells to Tucker and Daniel." I d been a little surprised, when at the beginning of the first day, when I was making breakfast for some of the families, Mrs. mansion had come up and _apologized _ to me for misjudging me. It seems like this whole thing was just full of apologies. Sam's parents, Valerie, a bunch of people I hardly recognized, Dash (which was a total surprise), and my own parents, to both forms! It was crazy!

Surprising everybody, Sam suddenly threw her arms around my neck. "Bye, Danny," she whispered into my hair. Her breath was warm on my ear, and I wanted nothing more than to keep the embrace for just a little longer, but she reluctantly let go and followed her mother into the car, which was driven by a chauffeur. The car started up, with the moving van behind, since the Mansons had a lot of stuff, and a lot had been saved in the mad dash to get out of the town.

As the car slowly drove away, picking up speed as it went, I ran past a couple of people chatting and rocketed into flight, quickly catching up with the car. Sam was looking out the window, and her eyes locked on mine as I pulled up side to side with the car, flying at the same pace it was going. Sam turned toward the window and put her hand on the glass, and I flew closer and reached out my hand until the palm pressed flat against the glass where hers was on the other side. We shared one final smile before both of us took our hands from the glass and I landed on the ground and watched the fancy car drive until it was a speck in the distance.

**Okay, so my orignial intention was for this to be Danny/Sam, but then it took a weird turn where it was kinda Danny/Valerie, but then I fixed it. I fixed it in the worst way possible, but I fixed it. I hope you liked, and, again, if you didn't, feel free to word hit me. (i.e. word SLAP!) and I'll fall to the floor in agony. K, BYE!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I know this might be a little bit of a sloppy way of getting him to Jump City without his parents, but I really didn't want them along. I know there's a lot of legal stuff I need to deal with, but I am fine dealing with it. My personal opinion was that Jack and Maddie would have gotten in the way. You can review and tell me I'm wrong if you want.**

**Again, anything you don't like, word hit. (i.e. word SMACK!) and then tell me why. It's better than flames, unless they're word flames. (i.e. word BURN!) I'd appreciate you being nice when telling me my story is crap, and word hits are my solution.**

**Okay, so I'm delaying the story, and you guys probably don't want to read this crappy author's note anyway. Just one more thing...**

_**I'm running out of songs to listen to, because I don't like listening to more than one in a close range and I can't remember half the ones I like. Please tell me your favorite song, so I can listen to it. Anything but rap, because I'ma very short, little, white girl who doesn't like rap.**_

"We need to talk," Dad and Mom sat down across from me in the tent, Dad even sitting cross-legged, or attempting to.

"Uhh, I didn't do it," I offered weakly, hoping for a joke.

Mom smiled kindly. "Not to worry, Danny. See, when Jazz was here, she got so excited when we told her we now see Phantom as a hero, that she kind of…blurted out everything."

"_Everything_?" I wondered, seriously doubting that they knew everything, though the blurting out part did seem a little like Jazz. She wasn't good with secrets.

"Everything," Mom repeated. "And yes, we mean everything. The fights, the battles, the injuries," she winced a bit at that. "I bet I'm responsible for some of your scars."

"No scars," I explained hurriedly, a little afraid they'd start being down on themselves. "I've got super-fast healing at the ectoplasm circulates enough so that, as long as I clean the wound, my skin heals and I'm fine. And don't worry, you guys never hurt me on purpose."

"I hunted my own boy." Dad's voice was grave. Then, his expression lightened slightly. "But that's not what we're here to talk to you about. Your mother and I want you to know that we're so proud of you, taking on that responsibility even when nobody believed in you. We know you've had a hard time, and we understand if you just want to live a normal life, but if you don't…"

My heartbeat quickened, and I realized just how much I was going to miss being Phantom. Helping people, saving lives, and those midnight flights when I couldn't sleep, and having a couple I'd saved last thursday wave at me, pushing their one-year-old daughter ahead of them. It would be sorely missed, and I wasn't sure if I wanted it to go away. No matter how hard things got, saving somebody's life and having them trust you, that always felt as good as it got.

"What?" I asked, suddenly craving to know what Dad was going to say when he trailed off.

"Well," Mom picked up. "We'd understand if you don't want that responsibility anymore, but the world needs all the heros sound of mind and body it can get, super-powered or not. You _are_ a hero, Danny, with amazing gifts. It's the spirit inside of you that makes you heroic, but the powers certainly help along the way. I think it would be a shame to not show off that heroic soul. So, and only if you want, you can leave us, and do what you can."

"i-I," I stuttered.

"Only if you want," Dad reassured me.

"I don't know," I finally said. "I want to, I think, but I'd miss you guys too much."

"You can visit us as often as you want," Mom offered. "And this way, you'll be a little more free to do what you want. No angry teachers or tight school hours to stop you from being the hero we know you are. There's no curfew you have to keep, and no worrying parents hovering over your shoulder. We'll miss you too, but we talked it over, and we think that this is the best offer for _you_. I know you, Danny. You want this, don't you?"

"Yeah," i admitted, both to myself and them. "I can visit all my friends too, and help people all the time. But, what about my education? How am I going to graduate high school, or college, even, if I'm on the road." Mom and Dad exchanged a look I couldn't read.

"In all honesty, Danny-boy," Dad boomed. "You weren't getting the best grades with your strange schedule and horrible sleep hours anyway, and we have faith in you that you'll somehow find a way to teach yourself. Actually," he shifted his weight and reached into one of his multiple pockets. "Jazz wrote down a list of online websites that have basic high school curriculum on them. Click on the right grade, and you can get a basic high school education on the road, but we have faith you can do fine without it. Besides," they exchanged the same look, "we haven't dealt with halvas besides Vlad before, but…"

"But what?" I demanded, because the look was worrying me.

They exchanged the _same god damn look_ and then Mom spoke. "Well…never mind. Just keep an open mind, and think broadly. It's nothing you need to worry about now."

"Okay," I muttered quietly, my head reeling. All of this was so fast, so sudden, and I didn't know exactly what I wanted.

Did I want to stay with Mom and Dad. Yes, of course. They were perfectly nice parents, and enjoyable. The were funny, and they had those quirks I'd memorized. Sixteen years with them, and it would be very hard to give them up. Very hard.

Did I want to travel the world and save people? Not a yes, but a hell yes. I loved saving people, it made me feel good, and human. Knowing myself that I was only half human sometimes got to me, but I was doing humaneacts, like helping people.

Did I want to travel around, see the world. Yes. I can understand the appeal, and I think Dani got the whole traveling thing from me. After all, I wanted to adventure so far as to go into space, and I found the only thing better. Mapping out the Ghost Zone, which was even more unknown than space. Traveling and adventuring was definitely a major plus. But, really, did I want to be traveling all the time, never _really_ making friends.

Did I want to be able to see all my friends when I was in their immediate vicinity? YES! After today, I could not _wait_ to see Sam again, and eventually I'd shrivel up and die from a disease I like to call Lack-of-Techno-Geek Syndrome, which meant I needed to take a healthy dose of my Tucker supplements.

"I don't know what to do," I told them honestly. "I really want to go, but stay with you at the same time. And never settling down, never having a family, or friends. I…I just…ugh!"

"Danny," Mom put a hand on my shoulder. "Go. You don't need us, and we can manage without you. Please, go. Find someone else like you, with powers. You can make them your friends, family. Find Sam one day. I'm pretty sure all of Amity Park _except _you two know that you're absolutely in love with each other." I blushed, thinking of this afternoon.

"Please, son," Dad began. "I know you worry about us, too, which may be part of the reason you're so reluctant to go. Jazz had the same problem, though it may have been of you too, thinking about it. But we can handle ourselves. We had for years, and two children, before Jazz grew up enough to start taking care of us. we;re fine."

"The world's better off with you than without you, Danny," Mom murmured. "Go."

"When?" I wondered, suddenly very sure of the fact that I was definitely going. "I don't have to sleep more than a few hours a week, and I've slept a lot lately, with everybody insisting I 'stop worrying about them and just go get some sleep, boy'."

"In that case, go now. Tucker's gone, Sam's gone, Valerie's moving out in a few hours, and I'm not sure there are many other people you needs to say good-bye to. Leave now, Danny, unless you'd rather stay for longer, explain. it's all your choice, but it's only more explanations of why, exactly, our son is leaving, and we're not leaving with him. In best advice, leave now," Mom instructed.

I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Love you," I whispered, and moved on to Dad. I gave him a hug, which he returned with bear-like strength that didn't hunt a bit because of super-strength. "I'll miss you guys."

"Visit often. You know where to go. West Virginia-"

"West Virginia, Catheter City, 5736 North Montgomery street. I got it," I interrupted, flashing smile at the end. Mom pulled me into a huge hug, which Dad joined, and I hugged back with all my pent-up emotion melting out. "Good-bye," I whispered, and they let go. I gave them one last, sad farewell smile before turning intangible and fading into invisibility before flying out of the tent and into the sky, changing into Phantom when I was fifty feet up, and then kept flying straight up until the air was thin and cold, and then, taking one last long look down at the encampment, tiny from this height, I sped off, away from my previous life.

The cool, thin night air pressed against my face and enveloped me in calming cool. I wasn't bothered by temperature, hot or cold, unless it was extreme, since I had developed my powers, but I could still feel it. Like the warmth of Sam's skin…and oh man, I was not going to stop thinking about that ever, was I. I was just glad Tucker had already packed up and moved out with his family the day before, because I know both our faces would have turned bright red when the inevitable call of "lovebirds" would've reached our ears. It probably still will, just over the phone.

But, the problem still stood. What was I to do about the whole hero thing? I needed a place to start, maybe a place I could settle down and be known as a hero. A place that needed me, but I didn't know of any place like that.

Suddenly, Valerie's words from earlier came back. _A city with an abnormally large crime rate, and the target of many super villains_. Okay, so maybe not those exact words, but close enough. I had my destination. Jump City, here I come. I hope you're ready.

**Cool, so, that was it. Word hits accepted. **

**Again, I need songs to listen to. Anything but rap, because I'm admittedly not a fan of rap. Like, at all. Though I do like rock, techno, country, pop, oriental, classical (occasionally), dance, jazz, and all that stuff you here on the radio, but not the overplayed crap. I LOVED Imagine Dragons before they put their songs on the radio, and now everybody is talking about how much they love Imagine Dragons, and then you ask them to name a song besides the three on the radio, and they're all like..."they have more than three songs?" and then I explode in a fiery ball of frustration.**

**I'm babbling. BYE!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Reviews are amazing! I love you guys, and the favorites and follows! Do you actually think a story of mine is good? GASP! Sha-dah. I love your guys's song suggestions, I've already listened to, like, a ton of them! Okay, I don't really have a lot to say for the authors note, except that I just got re-obsessed with a show called Supernatural starring Sam and Dean Winchester, or those are the character names, anyway. It's cool, but for teens. YEEP!**

Police sirens could be heard in the distance, but they were too far, and the police in this city were a lot slower than super-heros. That's to be expected, of course, but I was just glad I'd been faster than the Titans before now. Of course, sometimes they'd glimpsed me leaving the scene, but that was only a shadow, not enough to be sure of anything except that a vaguely humanoid figure had been sited leaving the scenes of several would be crimes, and the people having had committed the crime were stuck to the wall by their wrists or ankles with some kind of sticky, elastically goo. Ectoplasm in a form useful for bonds. Unbreakable, but anybody except the person pinned can pull it off with only a bit of strain to somebody with average muscle strength. I'd figured that the ectoplasm stuck to the skin of the person inside, so if that certain person pulled at it, it would only stick to their other limb as well.

"W-who are you?" stuttered the thief I'd just stuck to the wall by their left wrist.

"You're worst nightmare," i joked, making sure to stick to the shadows so he couldn't describe me to anybody. Word was out that Robin was looking for whoever was doing this. Whether we was happy with me and what I was doing, or if he was very unhappy, was unknown. All I knew was that I'd been doing this for about four months now, and I was extremely happy with it. I was now broadly known as 'the Phantom' because of what I'd put in the same type of ectoplasm on a wall before they could give me any stupid nicknames, like 'Inviso-Bill' for example.

The message had read "_The pleasure is all mine, jailbird. -Phantom"_ which had been a hoot to watch the first guy explaining how he was scrambling for escape when a guy that he could barely make out, a shadow, a _Phantasm_, came up, made a few jokes, and then pinned him to the wall with some strange material he shot out of something the man couldn't see either, like a goo gun or something, leaving the message in the same stuff. The message had been a reference to when the man had heard me and said, "Oh boy, Robin. It's a pleasure," with sarcasm. To which the I had replied in goop, and that had been the start of my career as a thug-catcher.

"You're Phantom, aren't you?" His voice shook slightly, but he said it with certainty.

It was hardly a question, but I answered anyway, with a chuckle. "What was your first clue? The glowing green goop or not actually being able to see me? Hey, I have a question. If there are, what, five super heros in this town, why do you even bother stealing stuff anyway. You'll either get caught by them, the police, or, well, now I'm in town."

"A lot of chaos comes from super hero/villain battles, and in that chaos you can steal anything. Why are you up at this hour?"

"Hmm," I murmured. "I didn't actually expect you to get up. You really want to know what I'm doing, awake at 5:47 in the morning?" He nodded. "Catching you," I replied. "Now, the Titans should be coming along right about now, so I'll be going. Have fun in prison."

I slipped away into the shadows, just as Starfire appeared on the scene from above. "Wait!" she called, immediately sighting me. "The Phantom must wait! Robin wishes to speak with you!"

"Not today," I muttered to myself and pressed my body to the wall as she flew forward, coming after me. I turned myself intangible and slipped through the wall, starting the transformation process on the way. The wall was one side of a rundown building, and I dove through the other wall and onto the early morning streets and sidewalks of Jump City. When I emerged my white hair was black and my eyes had returned to normal sky blue.

I began walking the already familiar route to my destination, since I'd caught several theirs and other miscreants (ten cent word!) in this alley before, as well as all over the city. Leave the small stuff to me, Titans, you can deal with the super villains.

It wasn't too far to walk, which was nice, but long enough so that I could look back over my shoulder and watch some of the police cars drive to the place I'd just left. Of course, they didn't know that, and who would ever suspect _me_, looking like this, to be leaving a crime scene? They would be looking for a bigger guy with more obvious muscles, since I covered my muscle tone with a long red sleeved tee shirt, still wearing the same short sleeved white one over it. One with a goo gun. I highly doubted they'd even considered the possibility that the goo actually came from _me. _

I reached the school and entered through the side entrance, which was left open for people like me. I went straight to the boys locker room and was greeted by the sight of about two dozen other guys, all here for the same reason as me. Swimming practice, which was always _before _school.

"Yo, Icy!" called a deeper voice. I turned to see Trench, which really was his name, standing there with his arms crossed, looking tough. "Cutting it a little close there, Icy," he told me, using his nickname for me, taken from my naturally freezing cold skin and ice blue eyes. Well, at least my skin was cold to _humans_. "Why're you late?"

"I'm not late," I told my taller and bulkier friend. His dark skin reminded me of Tucker, but besides their names beginning with the same letter, that was where the similarities stopped. Trench was a few inches above six foot, with bulging muscles and broad shoulders. He was alright with computers, but certainly not a techno-wiz. He'd never even heard of Doomed before me.

"Almost," he reiterated. "You know Courtney is here at five to practice before practice?"

"Ah, yes, the overcommitted cheerleader/swimmer," I said. "When's she gonna realize she's the best swimmer on the team by a long shot?"

"Yeah right, Icy," one of the other guys called, also using Trench''s nickname. "Like you don't know I'm the best!"

"Dude," another argued. "We all know that Courtney isthe _best _on the team right now. Does anybody actually know how much she practices? Like, every day for at least two hours, more on weekends."

"Alright," the first guy consented. "So Courtney's the best _female_ swimmer. Who's the best guy? Yeah, that's right, me!"

"No way, man," another guy called out. "It's either me, Vince, or Jeffery. There's no way that you're anywhere near the top. Icy beats you by a lot, even."

"Even," Trench called out, hooking a large arm around me. "Icy here could stomp all of us!"

"Yeah right," I muttered, pushing his arm off. "Stop embarrassing me. You guys know I suck." Which was technically a lie, since I probably could beat all of them in a swimming race, but I liked to keep a lower profile. Swimming was my extra-curricular activity, because my guidance counselor practically forced me to have one at gun point. I thought, what the heck, I'll do swimming. I suck at chess, I'm _not_ singing, and I doubt I could make it onto football if I tried. Plus, I wasn't ghost hunting 24/7 anymore, so why not get a little more exercise in. The early hours didn't bother me, I'd realized I didn't need quite as much sleep as a normal person, like sixteen hours a week for a comfortable amount of rest.

"I'm gonna go get changed," I told Trench, scooting away from the other guys slowly, before turning and speed-walking away.

"Mr. Modesty," Trench called after me. Yeah right, I just didn't want them to see a rather unanticipated set of muscles that I'd earned from ghost hunting. That's why I wore a muscle shirt during swimming, even though Coach Mirris almost constantly whined about it. In reply, I'd bought a tighter, water proof, shirt, still not so tight that it showed off anything I didn't want anybody to know about. "You're never gonna get laid if you keep your clothes on all the time!" Chuckles came from the other guys.

"Who says I want to?" I retaliated.

"Uhh," another guy drawled. "Every single dude on the planet wants to meet a pretty girl and then have a little _fun_."

"Not me," I answered, pulling off my shirts and tossing them on the floor. "I have a pretty girl in mind, but even if I wanted to _do it_ with her, which I don't, you can't exactly do it through a computer screen."

"What's her name?" wondered another guy. "I bet it's something like Rebecca, or Chloe. Something sexy."

"Nah, it's more like Selena, or Francesca," another guy argued. I rolled my eyes at their antics.

"Ooh, ooh!" another guy piped up. "Scarlet, or Veronica!" some of the guys hummed in appreciation. "Or Bianca." Several 'ooh's rose from this.

"It's Sam," Trench interrupted. He'd found her picture a few weeks ago, and would not stop bugging me until I told him every detail, curtaining the Phantom part of the deal. He'd also found pictures of Tucker, Jazz, my parents, and even me in my ghost form. My life story in a few photographs. He'd demanded every word, though I hadn't had many for the picture of white-haired, green-eyed me, besides a quick "shut up and forget about it." and snatching the photo back. I'd finally fed him some crap story about him being a second cousin, or something, and I'm pretty sure Trench forgot about it completely.

"Sam," one boy snorted. "Totally not what I pictured."

"She has purple eyes," Trench went on. "And right before Icy and Sammy parted, I hear they shared the sexiest kiss ever!" Several whistles filled the room. I emerged from the stall, stuffing my clothes into my swim locker.

"Purple eyes," one guy exclaimed. "Sounds exciting."

"She's goth, too," Trench added. All the boys eyebrows rocketed up even further.

"Dude, I'd officially like to meet this chick," one guy stated. "She sounds exciting."

"And she'd kick you in the soft spot for calling her a chick and 'sexy'. Repeatedly," I informed them. "Let's go!" I walked past Trench, giving him a _look,_ and then strolled out the door. I could feel the rest of the guys following behind.

"About time you guys got out," called a familiar female voice. Courtney sat on the side of the pool, her feet kicking in the water, her neck craned back to look at us. "You take even more time in the locker room than me!"

'Don't blame us," Trench excused. "We were talking about Icy's sexy, purple-eyed girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Courtney swung her legs up over the pool's edge and walked over to us slowly. I could practically feel every boy;s eyes, except for mine, on her as she sashayed over to Trench. Her tan skin, caramel hair, and slim _red_ bathing suit made her one of the more attractive females in the school. She also had a nice butt and not bad breasts, but I really wasn't going to judge on appearances after my major failure with Paulina.

"Why was I not informed you had a girlfriend?" she wondered, leaning slightly against Trench. They'd been dating for around five and a half months, with was a long time, in high school. I'd been here for around four months, so I didn't know what they were like when they hadn't been officially dating, but my guess was something along the lines of still-close-but-not-quite-yet.

"Not girlfriend," I corrected, glaring a couple of the guys down, but not really. My real glare shot lasers. "Friend."

"Which he made out with right before he moved," one of the guys added. I looked for who said that, but couldn't pin down exactly who said it.

"Whatever," I snorted, uncomfortable with the way the conversation was turning. "Let's just get started before the coach has our asses."

"Tell me!" Courtney protested. "What's her name? What does she look like? What's she like as a person? Every detail!"

"Later," i insisted, planning on putting it off for forever. Courtney knew this too, since I'd dodged questions about my past like this before.

"Dan-ny!" she whined, actually using my real name to be more convincing. Near everybody called me Icy, I doubt most of the campus even knew anything different. I'd bet there were even a few morons who thought Icy was my actual name. But I didn't worry to much about that, that only covered my tracks a little more.

"Later," I demanded, giving her a determined look.

"But-" she began, but was interrupted by a the rest of the girls running out of their locker room screaming at the top of their lungs. "EWWWWW!" one girl wailed. "What was that?"

"_Sooooo_ gross!" exclaimed another.

"Check it out for us," a blonde girl with big breasts shamelessly flirted with another swim team guy. I think his name was Kyle.

"Uhh, alright," he stuttered, and turned back to us, cocking an eyebrow. The swim team girls weren't sissies, though some of them very flirty and, uhh, unrestrained. Meaning, if you weren't careful, you got pinched in very uncomfortable places. But if something grossed them out so much, one of us didn't want to go it alone.

"Oh, come on!" Trench complained at the lack of volunteers. He looped an arm around my shoulders. "Icy and I'll go check it out. You scaredy-cats stay can here and tremble!" Trench was always one to volunteer for stuff like this, and he shamelessly dragged me into it. Whether he thought I needed more friends, which I did, or if he was just attached to me, I didn't know, but in some ways, I was glad for him. He was supportive, even if he hardly knew anything about me.

"Me too!" Kyle protested, following Trench, who was practically dragging me by the neck. I managed to get me feet under me and wriggled out of trench's grasp, falling into step a little behind him. Kyle walked next to me, but on the left side of Trench, instead of the right. looks like Trench would be leading this expedition.

We cautiously wandered into the girls locker room, half expecting to see bras and panties strewn all over the place. Yeah, I know, immature, but every boy secretly daydreams at least once about what mysteries are contained within the girls locker room. Especially when it's occupied. I'd gotten over that after a few invisible explorations back in Amity. They didn't do much, and kept all their underwear on. The craziest thing I saw while exploring was a strange lacy monstrosity a girl named Stacey was sporting.

"Whoa," Trench exclaimed, looking at something on the floor. Kyle was looking equally, if not more, shocked than Trench shouted, so I stepped around my African American's friend's shoulders and took a peek at what they were staring at.

I knew what it was almost instantly, and I was half tempted to tell them, but that would not only raise questions, i'd demolish what little reputation I had left. Unfortunately for me, Trench had been watching my face as I saw the thing, and in that first surprised moment, my expression had given what exactly I knew about it, which was a lot.

"Kyle, maybe you should go tell the everybody not to come in here until Icy and I can get rid of…whatever this thing is."

Kyle agreed quickly, and I could tell he was really freaked out about it, especially since it was _pulsing_. He hurried away with fast footfalls, and I could detect his voice telling the others that Trench and I were going to handle it, and they should stay out of the locker room until we came out.

Trench turned to me. "What _exactly _is that?" he wondered, motioning to the tiny, cowering, timid blob of a ghost lying on the locker room floor.

**YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! Okay, so I totally was not planning that when I was writing it, but it happened, so yeah. O just kinda needed something to happen, and it happened!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello! So, I noticed a lot of the stories in this archive were updated abruptly, and to anybody reading this who updated their story, THANKS!**

**Here's the next chapter, and I hope you guys like it a ton. All the reviews are putting me on a typing roll, along with the awesome three day weekend I'm on the receiving end of. THANK YOU DR. KING!**

**Also, I'd like to acknowledge Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for being a part of the revolution that helped the United States of America support all of us. I know there are some bad people here, and everywhere, but I guess it's just our job to make things a little better. **

**Okay, so that's a little like an inspirational speech, and I am in no position to be giving those, but seriously, Dr. King, awesome man.**

**All of you are awesome too, the reviews, follows, favorites...they provide support. Thanks guys, and enjoy.**

I leaned down and scooped the poor creature into my arms, cradling it gently. It looked very sickly, and I mentally attempted to pour some strength into the weak thing. It seemed miserable.

Trench looked shocked and disgusted. Whether he was shocked that I'd picked the thing up, or that it had all come up off the floor in one piece was a mystery. In all honesty, the thing resembled a gigantic, half-melted dome of pistachio ice cream, about to liquify and drip out of my arms. "Dude," he exclaimed. "Gross! That thing is _disgusting_!"

"Quiet," I complained lightly. "You might hurt its feelings."

"No way, man! What _is_ it?"

The creature in my arms opened a its mouth in a small yawn, bright, blood red eyes fluttering open. It blinked at Trench lazily, like it couldn't care less about him, and then seemed to notice it was a lot further off the ground than it should be. It squirmed around in my arms, slowly rotating, until it could see me face. I could tell by the widening of its eyes to see that it recognized who I was.

"Dude, that thing is _alive_!" Trench exclaimed, sounding more than a little repulsed. "Man, put it down. It's had to be dipped in toxic waste or something like that to be that color. in fact, I'm surprised it _is _alive_."_

"Actually," I corrected casually. "It's not."

"Not what?" Trench wondered.

"Alive. It's not alive." Trench gave me the _oh great, you've finally lost it _look. I smiled back in return. "My parents wore those jumpsuits that I know you thought were ridiculous because they were ghost hunters. Ever heard of Amity Park?"

"Oh yeah. That crazy haunted town that was attacked by some crazy mega-villian," Trench nodded, confirming my theory that absolutely everybody knew what Amity Park had been, and was now.

"I used to live there," I muttered, kind of unhappy on how the conversation had turned. He'd surely ask questions, questions I couldn't comfortably answer. I subconsciously noted the little green creature snuggling further into my arms, as if sensing my discomfort. It really was cute, in a ghostly blob kind of way.

"Oh…" Trench's eyes were wide. "That's why you moved. I'm sorry, man. i didn't know. And here I am making jokes." He clapped me on the back in what was supposed to be a supporting kind of gesture. In a way, a kind of painful way, it was. Trench was _strong_!

"it's fine, but I'm kind of an expert on ghosts. I know this little guy needs to get some raw ectoplasm in him, or he'll starve pretty soon. He looks really weak, and sleepy. C'mon. I know a place where we can keep him safe and secure for a while, and we can feed him."

"Whoa, whoa, wait, what?" Trench gave me a really bewildered look that would have been hilarious on his face if I wasn't cutting it awfully close. Still, I gave a half-laugh. "I thought ghosts attacked Amity, 'cept for that Phantom guy, who's like the Titans for us. You want to help one?"

"Contrary to popular belief, ghosts aren't evil," I informed him. "Well, at least not _most_,' I muttered, thinking of Vlad. "They're kinda like humans. There are a few bad ones in the bunch, but most just want to keep their friends and family safe, and be left alone beyond that. They go along with their hobbies, like hunting or, you know, box shopping." Okay, I just had to chuckle at that one. Trench looked very confused.

"What now?" he wondered.

"Nothing," I assured him. "But my point is, most ghosts aren't evil, they're like us. Actually, a lot of them are good people. Sure, there are a few tyrants, and annoying observers," or Observ_ants, _"but most are like you and I, just, you know, dead…and powerful." I paused for a moment. "Oh, never mind. Can you just stay in here with this little guy while I go get something from my locker?"

Without waiting for a response, I slipped the little ghost blob into Trench's arms, who made very disgusted sounds. I'm sure, if the little ghost cared to, he'd be making disgusted sounds too. Sometimes ghosts were picky about humans. I was just special because technically, I _was_ one of them, so they didn't mind me much.

"Be _right_ back," I assured Trench, and hurried to out of the girls' locker room. Almost everybody was looking at me expectingly when I rushed out, so I gave them a quick smile. "Uhh, I'm getting something to put the gooey gross stuff in so we can go dump it," I excused. Everybody nodded, like this made sense, which I thought it did, at least. So, excuse made, I hurried past them into the boys' locker room, where I rushed to my locker and dialed in my lock combo.

I tugged on the door, and it didn't open. "Seriously," I cried in urgency. "The one time I actually desperately need something from you, you choose to stick. I knew I should have chosen the locker by the corner, I bet that one doesn't stick!" Of course, you got hit by the door every time somebody walked in, so I thought this one was a good choice, at the time. I gritted my teeth and dialed the combo again, hoping for different results. They were the same, and the door stayed shut.

Glancing around the locker room to make sure nobody was in the immediate vicinity, or even remotely close enough to see what I was about to do, I spotted no one. I took a deep, nervous breath, almost sure I was about to get caught, because even though i'd done this a bunch at Amity, I'd been a lot less surrounded then, and the excuse of being possessed by a ghost was plausible. Also, I think I kinda half-wanted somebody to figure out, just so I could rub it in somebody's face, since doing that to Sam or Jazz would get me slapped, and Tucker had already been mocked to the point of not caring.

I took another deep breath, and turned my arm intangible, glancing down at it as the tingly feeling spread over the limb, before sticking it straight through the locker door. After groping around aimlessly for a while, I sighed in frustration and turned the other arm intangible, sticking it in too and feeling around. Finally, I found what I was looking for and grabbed it, taking my right arm out of the locker to set in down on the floor below before going back to groping wildly.

The second object I sought found my hand, as opposed to the other way around. I happily grabbed the full root-beer bottle, snatched the Fenton Thermos from the floor, and hot tailed it out of there. Right before I came out of the locker room, I turned both objects invisible, so it looked like my hands were empty. I ran out of the locker room , hopped around the crowd, and sprinted back into the girls' locker room.

Trench was holding the little ghost blob as far from his central body core as possible, a _very _strange look on his face. I laughed at it, hiding my hands behind my back, though not as to be noticeable to Trench, and let the objects turn visible. "Relax," I comforted. "He's not that bad. He's actually fine once you get to know him, just first impressions are a little tough."

"You haven't been proved correct so far," Trench complained.

I let a mocking grin stretch across my face. "I was talking to the ghost," I joked, setting the root-beer bottle down on the ground. The little creature burbled in appreciation, almost an imitation of a laugh.

"Soup and root-beer," Trench stated, just noticing what I'd brought in. "This is going to help, how?"

I held up the Fenton Thermos. "Not soup," I said seriously, then uncapped the machine and hit the button on the side. A beam of blue light came out and sucked the little ghost inside. He made no attempt to resist, though he did look a little miffed, but maybe that was just my imagination.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into the still open Thermos, though I'd turned of the sucking vortex. "I know it sucks, being in there, but I have to keep you in here until school ends, 'cause people tend to freak out at a bright green blob, even if it is taking nap in my locker. But hey, I know you're probably hungry. I was saving this for a special occasion, or a bad day, but you need it more than I do."

I scooped up the root-beer bottle and uncapped it, because I'd phased the cap back on after I'd finished the root beer. I help the thermos sturdy in one hand, and held up the bottle in the other, letting a single drop of the precious liquid inside drip into the thermos. I hated to give up what I had so little of, especially considering how much i enjoyed the stuff, but this little guy needed it. I shook myself out of my trance and let a small stream fall into the Thermos.

Trench's expression turned from incredulous and probably thinking I was insane, to shocked and surprised and thinking I was not-so-crazy when the neon colored liquid poured out of the root-beer bottle. I let about half of the bottle drain, and then twisted the cap back on, secretly phasing it just a little into the bottle. Normally, i wouldn't take a such a risk, but I didn't want to lose a single excess drop of this stuff.

I capped the thermos finally, happy with myself for helping a poor defenseless creature and giving a what I considered a lot for something else which I knew would probably never thank me. I didn't have much of this stuff, like I'd said before, and I didn't want to waste it, especially for how _amazing_ it was.

"What _is _that stuff?" Trench wondered, motioning at the half-filled root beer bottle hanging form my hand.

"Ectoplasm," I answered, deciding the truth was really the only option right here. "Don't drink it, it can be really bad for humans if they ingest too much of it. Like _deadly_ bad." Of course, I didn't have to tell him that I could drink gallons of this stuff and feel like I could hoist the entire world on my shoulders, with no ill effects. "But it's food end practically raw energy for ghosts. You eat a little of this, you'll get energized. Too much, you die. Simple, so don't drink it, and don't drink any mysterious beverages in my locker. It might be poisonous."

"Message received," Trench confirmed, giving me a double thumbs up. "No messing with anything in Icy's locker, it might be a weapon, a ghost containment device, or a poisonous substance. Pick your painful and agony-filled death!"

"I'm gonna run these back to my locker, you go out there and tell everybody everything is a-okay, and that we disposed of the gross green goop, kay?" I more demanded than asked nicely. Trench nodded anyway.

"But why lie?" he wondered innocently.

I winked at him mysteriously, or at least what I hoped came off as mysteriously. "I'd rather all my secrets be known on my own terms." He gave me the raised eyebrow treatment, which tootled me that not only did I now come off as mysterious, I looked down right stupid.

"Whatever," Trench muttered, taking the lead to walk out of the locker room. "Ice, you may be an excellent ghost whisperer, but there's only so much guy can pull off before looking absolutely ridiculous."

"i've pulled off more than you think," I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Trench wondered.

"I was saying how I was secretly a vampire who dragged my victims off into the night before I feast on their bodily fluids flowing through their jugular vein."

"Gross, man," Trench complained, and we strolled out of the locker room. To my not-so-great of a surprise, Coach Mirris was standing there, in all her great, whistle-blowing, blonde-haired, and slightly plump glory. Not that I had any problem with plump people.

"Icy! Trench!" she barked out, because even she called me by that nickname. I wasn't angry with the name, it's just, it's odd when teachers, and I mean all teachers, know you better by 'Icy' a nickname awarded to you by a partial friend, than your real name, which, admittedly, you were a bit reluctant to share. "I heard from the others you were getting rid of a problem in the girls' locker room. I appreciate you two doing that, so the janitor or myself didn't have to do it. Now get in the water!"

"I gotta put something away," I excused, holding up a seemingly empty hand in innocent. "Just a sec." I darted towards the boys' locker room, nearly rammed into my locker, tossed the two objects, intangible, of course, into the locker, and then ran back out and leaped over Trench as he was climbing down into the water, hitting it with a large splash and effectively soaking Trench with freezing cold water, like it always was in the morning. He scowled at me when I surfaced, knowing full well I'd done it on purpose.

Trench clapped the surface of the water with a meaty hand, splashing some on me, though the temperature didn't bother me, seeing as how I was both a ghost, and a ghost with ice powers. I grinned at him and passed to the next lane on Coach Mirris's orders to "stop messing around and prove to me you're not total morons!"

"Daniel," she barked. "When are you going to stop wearing that stupid water-proof muscle shirt to practices? It slows you down!"

"I'll stop wearing it when you actually get in the water with us," I tempted, knowing that neither would ever happen. There were some calls of encouragement from my fellow teammates, anyway, even they knew as well as I that she wasn't getting in the water.

Coach Mirris snorted in frustration, and with the piercing blow of a whistle, the brutal torture many called high school swim practice began.

**School swim practice, not that bad, but at five in the morning...I am not an early riser. Okay, so I know that I kinda put out a beacon like saying Danny wasn't going to swing with school or friends anymore, but I've got a plan. A very messy plan, yes, but a plan. Bye, and until next time guys.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, so i don't really know where I'm going with it afterward because I know I need another chapter in here before I want to release a bombshell, so you guys might need to wait a little while longer than normal just because I'm a lazy girl. But hey, I'll say this, if you review me before I come up with the start of the next chapter with an idea, there's a possibility i might use one of them. I don't know where he's going to wake up...and I've said to much. You know what? I'll shut up now. ENJOY!**

I was chugging a bottle of coke and hanging out with Trench and Courtney after school. Also, kinda feeling like a third wheel while they shared kisses and murmured to each other and fed each other food and basically did all the cutesy couple stuff you can get by going to go see some cheesy romance film.

"Hey," I muttered casually, seeing if it would snap them out of their 'couple' mode.

"Guys," I tried again, a little louder. Still no effect.

"Earth to Space Cadet Courtney and Trench the Martian," I called across the table. Courtney fed Trench a mouthful of soup, which he'd ordered and Courtney had payed for. He'd payed for her meal, and I'd payed for the five bottles, now empty, of Coca-Cola. It took lot of caffeine to give me a buzz, but very little ectoplasm-caffeine. Of course, I didn't have any to spare because now I had to help that little ghost creature.

"Hey, you two!" I did my best 'official' voice. "No Public Displays of Affection!" Courtney and Trench took no notice, though a couple a few booths broke away from each other, blushing. "Not you two," I called to them. "You can go back to snuggling, or whatever you were doing. I'm trying to prevent becoming the third wheel this bike no longer needs."

They glowered angrily and I heard the boy mutter under his breath, "Single people," in an annoyed tone.

"Yeah," the girl agreed, and they went back to trying to choke each other with their tongues, better known as making out. I would have been offended, but it was only super-hearing that had allowed me to hear that, and I knew they'd probably be back to single pretty soon. I bet I could have Tucker instruct me on how to build a robot with a screen for a face, in which Sam and I could have video chats, and I could roll by with me robot girlfriend and rub it in their faces. Yeah, as if that wouldn't label me as a freak for beyond life. When they became ghosts they'd find me just to laugh at me.

"So," I went back to awakening Trench and Courtney. "I'm pretty sure I just really badly pissed a male and a female off, and they were a couple, uh-oh!" No reaction. I summonsed few fake tears and pretended to break down. "No! My only friends in this lonesome world have abandoned me in favor of each other!" I wailed dramatically. 'What else is there to do but sprint to the bathroom and try to drown my pitiful problems and my pitiful self with a series of swirlies and other head-flushings ending with a very dramatic death, like the basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie!"

Courtney let off a laugh, and at first I was a little hopeful, but then I saw that she and Trench were pecking each other on the face repeatedly with little kisses.

"Fine!" I threw my hands up in frustration. The I lowered my voice. "Hey, I'm gonna go prowl the streets, looking for crime, so I can stop it. You know I'm 'the Phantom', right?" even the truth did nothing to snap them out of it. They were practically dead to the world, and this coming from a real ghost!

"Whatever," I mumbled, tossing my last Coke bottle onto the table and stalking away, a little pissed. But I could handle it. Courtney and Trench were just amazingly happy with each other. I stalked out of the little diner, not even noticing the shady-looking man standing by the door, who followed me out.

I stomped down the street, kicking a stray rock hard enough to send it skittering across the pavement all the way to the next block, and then into the street, where a car proceeded to ran over it. I sighed in frustration, because that just _figured_! This was a relatively normal day, besides me telling my two close friends, and I mean who am I kidding, only friends, my big ole' secret, and then being disregarded.

Okay, so maybe they hadn't heard me, but still. I mean, really? Seriously? What gives? You think they would have at least noticed the Harry Potter reference. Also, my opinion was that snake dies in such a dramatically fucked up way in the movie, it totally ruined the book experience completely for me. But that was only my opinion. Maybe both Courtney and Trench really liked the way it died…Or maybe they just weren't paying attention to their apparently suicidal and date-ruining (for that one couple, anyway) pathetic friend.

I took a turn into an old alley, knowing that i had absolutely nothing to fear from muggers or thugs, considering that I caught them for a living, or, I guess you could say, I caught them for an un-living. (rim-shot! {the sound they make after a really bad joke to make it seem funnier, for any of you who don't know}). You know, except for the fact that i didn't get paid and even if I did, nobody knows who to pay. Also, i can't get a job because I'm to busy stopping people from getting robbed, because this city has an insane amount of crime!

I mean seriously! The one time I did get a job where I was actually happy, and the boss wasn't a big, fat douche, the store, which I was working in _at the time_ got robbed! Of course, I had to let the Titans get 'em, but while they were getting him, I say another robbery going down on the next street. I stopped that, but then realized that, seriously, the more people actually stopping these idiots free at times, the better. Somebody needed to teach whoever these bozos were that crime was so _not_ alright, and it took up my free time, which I could spend either gaining money or watch my two friends make out with each other.

But really, I needed money. I was getting tired of having very little money. I still had some left, but buying to support my food needs, which was about normal since I wasn't feeding off ectoplasm, and gaining absolutely zero dollars each day, well, I was running dry, and also really craving a little taste of a certain glowing green liquid.

You see, I would explain the whole ectoplasm for food thing with Trench, but I'd know a little to much about it. It'd probably go along the lines of: _Okay, so, ectoplasm is ghosts' food. Their source of energy, like normal food is for us. Human substances can be infused with ectoplasm and then ingested by a ghost, which brings a little extra flavor to the already excellent taste of ectoplasm. Also, ghosts don't need as much ectoplasm as we, or, well, you do food, because even, say, a root beer bottle full of the stuff is enough to keep a powerful ghost going for quite some time, as long as they were relatively strong before hand, and not totally week, like that ghost on the locker room floor. Oh, and since I've practically just spilled all this information to you, I'm gonna tell you the truth. I'm a ghost!"_

And then, of course, he would run screaming down the street yelling "Icy's a freaky dead person!" Yeah, _that'd_ go over well.

Suddenly, something hit me from behind and to the side. A gruff, "Give me your-" came out before the guy hit the ground. I realized that this guy had tried to push me up against the wall, but I hadn't moved, because, you know, I was cool like that, so he'd lost his balance and fallen.

I noticed that he was reaching for a knife, which had probably fallen out of his hand upon impact on the ground. I scooped it up just as his hand hit the empty space where it had been. I clucking my tongue. "Tsk, tsk," I reprimanded condescendingly. "We shouldn't play with knives, you might hurt yourself."

"Can it, you little smart-mouth," he growled, stumbling to his feet and lunging at me. I sidestepped and he tripped, falling into a wall. I turned and pinned him to the wall by his shirt with the knife, good and secure, with enough fabric so that he couldn't just rip it.

"Have fun on your date," I told him, giving a mock-encouraging expression.

"What date," he practically hissed, though a little confusion mixed with his tone.

I wiped the extra spit from my face, still grinning for effect, even though I was less than pleased. I couldn't even take out my frustrations of this guy because he was human, and if I so much as punched him one time there was a serious possibility, almost a guarantee, that i'd break a bone, and heros didn't do that, no matter how annoyed they got because their friends ignored them and then some stupid mugger attempted to be menacing.

"Your date with that girl," I went on. "I'm about to sound like I'm out of a comic book, but I think her name was _Justice_!" I struck a Superman pose for effect. The man groaned at the utter cheesiness (haha, see what I did there? Cause cheese comes from milk, and milk comes form cows and cows have utters!) in that statement alone.

"Ugh, nobody appreciates good comedy anymore," I complained. Then I tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm off to see the wizard, as well as go get some sleep, and you have fun on your rendezvous with the law enforcers. Catch ya later, gator," I winked, pretended to shoot him with a finger gun, and then strolled along the rest of the alley, ignoring the man's indignant splutters about how 'normal' citizens would 'call the cops' and not just 'leave him there'. Pshtttt, whatever. I was the definition of _normal_.

Walking down the street, I was bored. Bored and lonely. This was the whole point of making friends of Trench and Courtney, so I didn't get lonely. But, apparently, they were to busy sucking each other's brains out through their mouths to care about their attention-needy friend. And yes, I am fully aware that I am very, very attention-desperate.

"Hey, yo, Icy!" called a voice I kind of recognized. I turned and saw two boys from swimming, Jake and Charlie, I think, with two girls at their sides. One girl had darker skin and sleek, rippling black hair, and the other was a tan blonde, stereotypical California girl. I waved back at them, and then resumed walking. Apparently, I'd made other friends besides Trench and Courtney. It wasn't much of a surprise, but a little one, because I didn't spend much time outside of school with anybody, even Trench or Courtney.

A loud crash suddenly rang around the city, and I noted it had come from a few blocks east. Discreetly slipping into an empty alley near me, I let invisibility take me and ducked through all objects, including walls, cars, and people, until I reached my destination. I didn't bother to dodge any of the objects, even the people, because I'd learned how to avoid overshadowing even when I went straight through a man or woman.

What I viewed when I arrived on the location of the crash didn't surprise me too much. The Teen Titans seemed to be fighting three opponents, and winning. I stayed invisible and intangible and observed the opponents (and now I'm sounding a lot more professional than necessary). All of them were vaguely humanoid, but had strange quirks. They were also all wearing what looked like uniforms, conformist, yellow monstrosities with a black H on the front in a hexagon.

The first guy was a boy with bright purple skin, hair, the works, which made the outfit look even more stupid. His eyes were a lot bigger than they should have been, and looked kind of like a salamander's. They were also greenish yellow instead of white, and the irises and pupils were all black. They were also covered in a layer of slimy residue which I guessed kept them moist. He seemed to be sticking to everything of his choice, and he also looked super-strong.

The second was a girl who seemed to have qualities similar to a rubber band. She could stretch and limb to a certain point, and bend her body really, really unnaturally. Her hair was tomato red, which didn't go with the stupid outfit either. It was actually really ugly, and I was kind of tired of looking at it. I watched as she stretched her midsection around a car tossed at her by Cyborg.

The third and final enemy the Titans were battling was a girl with glowing blue hands. It was a deep blue, like the color of a Pepsi can, without the logo. It was the only bizarre color from the these three dweebs that didn't "clash" with their annoying yellow jumpsuits. She screamed a warrior battle cry, which really ruined the element of surprise she probably could have used, and launched herself at Starfire, who allowed her star bolts to combat with the blue energy.

Robin catapulted himself at the stretchy girl, now dubbed Rubber-Banda my yours truly. She stretched out a leg and dodged, and as he flew past, she reached out an elastic arm to grab the back of his cape. He swiveled in the air and wrapped a wrist around her own super-stretched one, launching himself back at her and kicking her in the face. She flipped over backwards, limbs stretching, and ended up around fifteen feet from Robin. A green dog, Beast Boy, presumably, ran at her, and she dodged attacks from both heroes.

Sala-man-der, and yes, it's dumb, but so is he, and it's still better than Inviso-bill, was sticking to the side of a building. Raven's dark magic effected a street sign, ripping it from the ground, and using it as if it were a bug swatter to drive him off the building. Cyborg fired a blue blast of a sonic something or other at him, and Sala-dude barely dodged, promptly getting smacked upside the head by a glowing black sign. He staggered to his feet and ran at Raven, a determined expression on his face.

Starfire and Sapphi-roar, as the King of Amazing, Spectacular, Nicknames, a.k.a. moi, had named her, after the totally unnecessary battle cry she'd done, were battling it out above the chaos. Sapphi-roar had blasts of the same blue magic coming out her feet, which propelled her and probably allowed her to fly in the first place. Star bolts and blue energy blasts collided with each other, and occasionally Starfire and Sapphi-roar would come together to punch one another.

Screams rang through the air suddenly, and I swiveled to see a combined blast of green and blue heading straight for a few pedestrians, a man, woman, and little girl. I ran towards them, dropping the invisibility and intangibility and hoping that in the chaos that nobody would notice the boy appearing out of thin air. Just as the energy blast was nearing them enough to make impact, I dove and hurled them out of the way. The energy blast hit me in the back, but I managed to stagger to my feet.

"Thank you!" the woman cried, pulling me into a hug. "Oh, thank you."

"What's wrong, son?" the man wondered, his hand still grasping the little girl's. My vision was flickering, and the edges darkening.

"Hmm," I noted with mild curiosity.

'What?" the woman inquired, holding me at arms length and investigating me.

"I think I'm about to faint," I said calmly, and then did exactly that, my vision turning from fading gray to all black.

**Okay, so these three Hive goons, if you've guessed correctly, they're not a huge part of the story. In total honesty, I needed a villain and I couldn't come up with one that would work. Danny's handling all the thieves and, you know, miscreants (oh my gosh, did you know I used that word like seventeen times this week. I've known it forever, but for some reason i just became obsessed) but anyway, so I didn't come up with a villain, so I was all, i'll throw in some HIVE kids to the fray and make this story suck even more than it already does! But, you know, that's just the way the fire burns...i don't think I'm saying the right saying, or is it writing the right saying? Righting the right saying? Writing the write saying? Saying the write saying? Okay, so know I'm just having fun and being a jerk. BYE!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, so, first order of buisness: reviews, favs, and follows. You boys and gals are epically amazing, cool, and GROOVY, bah-bay. I feel like I owe you guys something, so I'm gonna put this new chapter up and hope it's enough. Key word: HOPE. As in, I HOPE you all love it.**

**Secondly, me maties, you all wanna send me any big vocabulary word that can confuse thee of lesser aptitude than us mighty writers, I'd be super grateful. I'm doing my best to be right about the meanings of words in a wordly competition with a certain friend of mine, where he tells me a word and I tell him what it means and I tell him a word and he tells me a word, and when you get a word right, you get a point, but when you get a word wrong, you loose a point. So far the score is **

**ItTicklesLikeCrazy: 7**

**Mysterious Friend : 5**

**I NEED TO WIN!**

**See, that's another thing 'bout me. I like to be right and win, and when i'm not I don't like it when people rub it in my face, which the normally do. it's probably this rubbing that made me so determined to always be right in the first place, which just encouraged more rubbing in the face when I did end up wrong, which happens a lot, but I can cover it up,s o that's good.**

"Ugh," I groaned groggily, and without moving a muscle or even opening an eye, I muttered. "You know, I'm gonna be really, really pissed when I open my eyes and, instead of the ceiling over my bed, I find myself staring at the faces of the Teen Titans leaning over me."

A muffled 'eep' could be heard, probably from Starfire. I slowly creaked my eyes open, seeing exactly what I had just described. "You know," I confided. "I was hoping by saying that, the former would become true. Note to self, avoid mysterious hybrid energy blasts from strange villains from now on. If not, you end up in," I glanced around. "Parks, laying on a mysterious park bench with the saviors of your town leaning over you stinking up your breathing air with tofu-red meat breath."

"You were really brave back there," Robin told me, ignoring my comment. "Risking your life for those people."

"Say it to yourself," I ordered with a serious tone. "You dorks, and I say dorks in a very endearing way, do it all the time." I attempted to sit up, but a big hand made out of cyber-material pushed me down back into a horizontal position.

"You should stay laying down," Cyborg instructed. "That energy blast really took something out of you. If a normal human gets struck by a star bolt, they, well, at least they would be in a lot of pain for a while." Oh yeah, try getting hit with an ecto-ray, then come talk to me. "And Nevana's-" Oh, so it wasn't Sapphi-roar. "-energy blast could have done a lot more damage. You should be glad you woke up only an hour after, you could have been out for days, or worse."

"So, is worse death, or do the effects of the blast turn my skin temporarily pink?" Nobody laughed, which I was kind of sad about, because I liked to think I was funny. "So…" I shook me head slightly, looking them expectantly.

"So what?" Raven asked in a dry tone. I nearly cracked up because suddenly the lyrics to the P!nk song exploded into my head, but I passed it off as a cough, which they might expect, because they thought the Great Me was actually weakened by that energy blast.

Thinking of which, I needed a cool title. How come Spider-man gets labeled "amazing" even though people thought he was a menace in the movies, but everybody thinks I'm a menace too, and I've overcome way more obstacles than him, but all everybody's called me is "not as bad as I originally thought". What? Did they think I ate babies in my free time or something?

I realized the Titans were all looking at me expectantly and I grinned sappily. "You know, don't you guys have to go do important hero stuff? Or go eat gyro sandwiches?" Okay, at this I did chuckle a bit, just because I was pretty sure nobody else was going to, and it made me feel a little better to here laughter, even my own, at my pitiful attempt of a joke. Beast Boy might have laughed, if I didn't just make fun of his tofu breath right earlier. Huh, maybe I should guard my mouth more.

"So, are you just gonna stare at me more, or are you actually going to do something," I breached after another awkward stretch of silence, because they were all just staring at me like creepers. No response, so I rolled my neck and gave Robin my best creeper stare, with eye twitch and everything.

"Right! Right!" Robin finally broke out of it, probably because of the creeper stare. Still, I wonder what any innocent passerby thought of the scene. One black-haired blue-eyed teenager staring like Igor at the leader of the teen titans while laying down on a park bench, while the rest of the teen titans stared him down. They might report me to the authorities, and that might be a problem because there was no doubt my luck would seize the opportunity to make three break-ins happen at once, none which Phantom would stop, and one or maybe even all the Titans stop. Very suspicious. These guys weren't the Amity Park police, who sat around munching donuts and only paused long enough to lazily shot bullets at me. The bullets didn't hurt physically, passing through me harmlessly, but my feelings were hurt. Didn't they care about my emotional state. If it broke, I could murder the entire world.

"So, bye." I gave a little hand twitch in symbol of a wave, which might have looked more like a muscle spasm, which would probably give them even more to worry about, and they might stick around staring for even longer. Great.

"We're not just going to leave you here, bro," Beast Boy informed me. "Laying on a park bench with nothing to do. That's totally boring."

I gave him weird look. "Dude, you guys save the city on a regular basis, and you care about some kid who jumped in front of there pedestrians. Please, I bet you have to go do some awesome city saving right now!"

"We're really just normal people," Robin reassured, looking a little resigned, like he knew I was just another star-struck kid going on about how great it was to be a superhero with powers, and see none of the downside like, say, getting your entire town blown up by a homicidal maniac. As if! If anybody knew the crap that came with being real hero, not just a showboat, it was me, but I had to keep up my guise as normal B-class citizen, which meant annoying the Titans with hero worship. Is it a bad thing that i'm not actually too bummed about that, or even a little excited. Not that I had anything against the Titans specifically, but turning the hero worship around, rubbing it in someone else's face, it just seems fun. Does that make me a bad person?

"Yeah," I said, prepping for the rubbing in the faces, as our dear little orange-skinned alien would put it. "Normal people with superpowers! You guys are awesome!" The Titans were practically radiating a tinge of disappointment mixed with a bit of resentment and a ton of desperation to be treated by equals from someone besides the others. Everybody except Robin could no longer be classified as human, and Robin was, well, Robin. You know, the boy wonder of boy wonders.

"Look, guys, I'll be fine," I tried again. "You can leave me here…" I watched to see any change in their faces, but there was none. "…to go do your awesome superhero stuff," I finished. Maybe I could drive them away with annoyance! It was worth a shot. "I mean, don't you have like top secret Titan stuff to be doing?Like super-spy meetings and stuff!" Okay, so now I was just being an ass, but hey, maybe.

"We couldn't leave our new friend to despair in the loneliness!" Starfire called out in protest. Of course, I bet this was routine stuff to them, they were as used to it as me, and I had overestimated the annoyance arsenal in loaded compliments. They didn't know the compliments were loaded, naturally, because even though they hated them, they didn't know I knew well enough just how much one could loath hero worship. And, you know, handing the compliments out wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.

I sighed. "Thanks, guys, but I'm fine. You guys want to go do normal things with each other, not babysit some loser wannabe hero whose obviously an utter moron. You guys don't need to hold my hand, I can handle myself."

"We don't think of you like that!" Robin jumped in quickly. Oh darn, i was hoping that that would work. Why wouldn't they just leave me alone! "You actually did something a lot of kids your age would never dream of, and you saved that little girl's life." Kid? Seriously? I was what, two months younger than him? Or am I just a kid because he thinks my maturity is low? Why don't you call Mr. Beast Boy a kid than, Bird Brain? Okay, so maybe a little harsh, but seriously! Kid? Do they know how patronizing that is? All heros seem to say that to teenagers, which totally pisses the teens off, and then they become super-villains.

Of course, I wasn't about to vault into super-villainism, but I'd never called anybody kid, and I was their age, pretty much. I might even be older than Beast Boy, who I was pretty sure was the youngest, though I wasn't totally sure. The point is, I was around their age, and I was a hero too, so i could call them kid, and how would they feel, hmm? I bet they'd get pretty ticked, maybe even rant about it out loud in their fancy tower later. At least I was ranting in my head!

I saw no other option to entertain myself, so I opened my mouth. Like any good can come from this. "Don't," I put up a finger and gave Robin a meaningful look. "Don't ever call anybody kid, especially when they're your age. That's how you create super-villains, or have you ever seen the movie 'The Incredibles'? Believe me, it just ticks people off, so erase that as a title from your brain, and call toddlers 'children' or 'young people' because 'kid', it's pretty obnoxious. Just a tip." Okay,s o that was totally not what I meant to say, I think the intended comment was something about vampire marshmallows, but I guess head-ranting messes with the system…and the vampire marshmallows.

Thankfully, before I had the opportunity to have the pleasure of experiencing the Titan's reaction, my luck, or un-luck, produced yet another moronic thief robbing a store right across from the park he _knew _the Titans were in. Okay, seriously, do all high school drop outs in surrounding areas come here just to stupidly steal stuff. Well, there's a new sheriff in town, and I have so always wanted to say that, but I'll settle for thinking it like I'm saying it, and I was not about to let some moronic douche get away with stupid thievery. I mean, if you're gonna be a criminal, you may as well be clever about it, right?

Without another thought for me, the Titans leapt into action. "Alright Titans!" Robin shouted, taking charge. I was prepared to watch the Titans beat this petty thief, and use the distraction to make my escape, but the thief's next action kinda provoked me. He took a small marble-sized ball out of his pocket and threw it at the ground, where it exploded into a billowy smoke cloud. When the smoke cleared, the thief was long gone. Okay, so maybe not so moronic.

"Surround the area," Robin barked. "Then slowly press in. We'll drive him to the center, then capture him. If Phantom shows up, keep track of him!" Oh, now I feel so wanted. I grinned at the back of Robins cape, and ducked under the bench.

Instead of doing what a normal person would, which is tuck their shoulder so it didn't collide with the ground painfully, I let intangibility take over, and let my momentum carry me straight into the ground. And when I say into, I mean _in to_. Like physically _in_, but you get the point.

Underground was dark, duh, because I was totally intangible and immersed in solid earth. I let the light rings take over, not even wasting energy to muffle the light and not attract attention, which I might do if I was standing int a dark corner. Why waste the energy? I was underground, nobody was around to gawk except the occasional earthworm, and they didn't have eyes.

Once I felt I gone far enough to get to the general area, because I really couldn't see anything underground, because, you know, solid earth and everything, even with night vision, I just see ground, I surfaced. I was lucky enough to come up in the middle of a wall, which was pretty unexpected, and I phased out with what I know was a weird look on my face and turned invisible, because I didn't waste energy to be invisible underground, because, you know, underground. We've already been through this.

I was lucky enough to have become invisible when I did, because approximately three seconds after, a large green basset hound leaped right by me, and I froze like I meant to become an invisible statue for a living, because even with ghostliness and invisibility, I still had a scent. Panicked, i went intangible and watched the dog very carefully as it paused, sniffed the air, got a bit of a confused look on it's face, and then moved on. I nearly sighed in relief, or died in relief.

I moved on, hovering a fair distance above the ground, but still coasting, not flying, because flying makes it harder to spot the thieves and more likely to run into confused Titanesses. As far as they knew, Phantom was human, just a jackass. I didn't need them knowing that I was only a half human jackass, not a full human one. They so did not need to know I had a super-powered arsenal and a bit of a reputation in the human world, because that might be rated as jacking their style, and heros can get _pretty_ territorial. Trust me, I should know.

Easily, I passed the bounding dog and saw the positions of both Raven and Starfire, above me. Accounting for Beast Boy's position, along with theirs, that formed an imperfect triangle, but it still told me the boundaries of where the thief could be, if Cyborg and Robin were in position.

I increased my speed and descended my elevation (and I sound like such a smart kid here!) until I was zinging intangibly through any and all obstacles, and it wasn't long before I found the culprit. He seemed pretty smart, just because he was hiding in plain sight. he wasn't even trying to run, and he seemed to know what the Titans were doing, so he was staying unnoticeably out of sight, because most thieves would run. And he was way in Starfire's quadrant. As soon as she flew over, he would make his escape.

And speak of the devil, I watched invisibly as the red-headed alien slowly advanced, staring the street down like it had personally offended her. Her all-green eyes momentarily paused on the thief, and she tilted her head, swooping down, but then she shook it, and continued on. Oh, he _was good, _but he's have to be a whole lot better if he actually wanted to get away.

I'd like to say i was totally not amused when the thief grinned like a maniac after Starfire moved on, and slowly started heading in the other direction, but that would be a lie. Actually, that part wasn't amusing. The amusing part was when he tripped and dropped everything, making a huge commotion. The funniest part was the expression on his face, because there had been nothing to trip over for twenty meters up until a second ago.

He started to get up, also scrambling to pick up the bags of whatever he had stolen, but he couldn't get very far, seeing as his foot was plastered to the sidewalk with gooey ectoplasm. As soon as he saw the green substance on his foot, his eyes widened and he looked to the shadows in fright, because he wasn't expecting me to be invisible right in front of him. I nearly giggled like a little girl at a slumber party, but that would have ruined the entire thing.

"Phantom," he whispered, a bit of apprehension coloring his tone, as well as awe. maybe I had an admirer. Let's find out, shall we.

"You got that right," I murmured slyly, not even bothering to project my voice to somewhere else, and the expression on his face was priceless.

**Again, I'd really appreciate some cool long words from you guys, if it's not too much trouble. And if asking isn't too much, try to avoid really disgusting meanings, like necrophiliac, because like almost every boy my age, he has a sick and dirty mind.**

**KAY. THANKS FOR READING. AND PEACE!**


	7. 7 Chapter

**Okay, so I had a bit of fun typing this chapter. It's cool, right? I think so, at least. I hope you guys like.**

**I left a hole, :(, but I fixed it here. In this chapter. Tell me what it was and...well, I don't actually know who any of you are so I can't actually give you anything substantial, not to mention it might be a little creepy if I did, but you get the point.**

**You can thank Sonochu for the name, and you can thank all reviewers, favorites, and followers for this chapter, because it's you guys that inspire. **

**Also, my word game stats:**

**ItTicklesLikeCrazy: 13**

**Mysterious Friend: 7**

**BLAM! You guys are awesome, and I haven't even used that many of the words. I am sooooo winning this puppy.**

**Also, any of you Supernatural fans? (Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Castiel) I put up a story for DP/SPN in case any of you wish to check it out. Just saying. (Also, Misha Collins seems a lot more attractive to me than he rightfully should. Somebody punish somebody for this! I'm not supposed to be a hormonal teenage girl until next year! {but not really})**

"Phantom," he whispered, a bit of apprehension coloring his tone, as well as awe. Maybe I had an admirer. Let's find out, shall we.

"You got that right," I murmured slyly, not even bothering to project my voice to somewhere else, and the expression on his face was priceless.

"Where, where are you?" he stuttered, glancing around in confusion, because he'd heard my voice pretty close.

"I think the better question is who am I?" I joked. "At least that's what the rest of them have been asking. Let's look in my book of titles, shall we. Oh wait, you already know who I am. I'm Phantom, _the_ Phantom." Wow, that sounded cool. No joke, even, i just sounded like a pro. Professional thief-catcher award, me!

"What is this stuff?" he wondered, pulling at the ectoplasm on his footpath his hands.

"Magic," I replied sarcastically. "Hey, question. Why didn't you seem afraid of the Titans, but you were all spooked of me?"

"I don't know you," he answered ominously. "I know the Titans, their abilities, their strategies, but you. You're a mystery."

"Why thanks!" I cheered. "That makes me feel all tingly inside. Let's keep it that way, because you made so much noise, I think I'll leave before I get caught with you. Oh, and," I floated to a shadowy spot for precaution, then shot another bit of globby ectoplasm at his other foot, just in case. "Bye now!" I yelled, and dove into the ground.

I surfaced a moment later, but only my invisible, intangible head was above the ground. I'd planned right, and the noise had drawn the Titans' attention, but they'd kept pressing in, just faster, so when they finished, three went back to check, and two came here. Starfire and Raven.

"Oh, oh, I failed!" Starfire wailed, knowing that this was her quadrant.

"You did fine, Star." Raven reassured. "It actually helped because now we know something else."

'What?" The red-head questioned the purplette. "What new information have we received?"

"Well," Raven began. "This is obviously done by Phantom, and know we know he's not afraid to come in where we are working. He's never come in like this before, so we question this guy and he'll tell us stuff." She took something off her belt and flipped it open; a communicator. "Robin," she said to the device. "We found the thief. Phantom got him." I didn't here the reply, but imagined it was something like _Okay, great work Raven. I'll be there with Beast Boy and Cyborg in a jiffy._ Okay, so maybe he wouldn't use the word jiffy, but you get what I mean.

Sure enough, not even a minute later Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all appeared, joining the girls and staring at the thief. "We've called the police," Robin told the thief in a no nonsense tone.

"No shit, Sherlock," the thief spat at the Boy Wonder. "I thought you'd called the Pizza Parlor, maybe a double pepperoni?" Okay, so I was beginning to like this guy, even if he was a stupid thief. Just because he was a smart-ass, and that might be the type of comment I'd make if Robin glued me to the sidewalk. Of course, I'd glued him to the sidewalk, but nonetheless, he was now glued to the sidewalk either way.

"You're going to tell me everything you can about Phantom," Robin demanded.

"And if I don't?" the thief asked cockily.

"If you _do,_ in return we'll drop in a good word and make sure you don't get to be cellmates with Overlode, or Plasmus. If you don't, well, good luck." Robin grinned savagely, and even though I knew well enough to almost, _almost, _be sure that he would never do anything like that, I felt chills, and I was a ghost!

The thief stared at Robin with narrowed eyes for a moment, and then nodded. "Serves that cocky bastard right, anyway." He muttered in a way of acceptance. _Bastard?_ I mouthed, offended. Jerk, maybe. Smart ass, definitely. But bastard? No!

"Tell us everything," Robin ordered, and I knew I had to stay to hear them strategize about me, even if cops were coming, because I could here faint sirens in the distance. I was invisible and intangible anyway, what's the worst that could happen. They're not going to check my alibi, they have no leads to put any suspicion on black-haired me.

"Well he's either invisible, which I doubt," the thief started, and I smiled despite myself. "Or he really likes messing with people, because I swear his voice was everywhere at once, echoing, and yet, right in front of me." Oh yeah, baby! Point one for ghostly echo in my voice, and it disguises itself pretty well too. That means no voice recognition software.

"Yeah?" Robin pushed.

"Well, somebody's eager," the thief murmured, subconsciously tugging at the goo. All five superheroes were _not amused_. Oh, well, I almost feel bad for him. Never mind, I don't feel bad, I'm just enjoying the show. It's entertaining as anything else I'd see, plus it'll tell me if the Titans are gearing to take a big ole' bite of Phantom

"Fine," the thief sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically. "Well, I came over here and hid in the shadows, praying to lords above that you would all somehow magically not see me," the sarcasm in his voice was nearly palpable, and I held back a chuckle with an invisible hand. The Titans were still not laughing. "And somehow, a wondrous occurrence happened and I was ignored," when none of the Titans even twitched an eyebrow, the guy rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

"After this, I continued on my merry way," he resumed. "Ready to make a break for it with the loot, I strolled leisurely down the walk, when I fell."

Beast Boy giggled. "You mean you tripped? Dude, not very thief-like behavior." Hey! I agree! But, no, he didn't trip. Here's the part where I come in, all my smart-alecky glory in full.

The thief gave Beast Boy a look like "I really want to scratch your eyes out with my perfectly manicured nails but thanks to some jerky vigilante with smooth witty banter my feet and glued to the sidewalk and I can't reach you". Which would be made even more awkward by the fact the the thief was a male, and therefore very unlikely to have perfectly manicured nails, but what can I say? Childhood trauma, it sticks with you.

"No, Brain Boy," the thief growled. "I mean my foot got stuck to the sidewalk by glowing green miscellaneous!"

"Oh," Beast Boy hummed, and I grinned. I wasn't really sure to if I wanted to punch this guy in the face or accept him as a brother…while I threw him in a jail cell. Either way he was going to jail, even if I had to drop him off as Phantom myself, which would be a little difficult, trying to keep everything super-secret and stuff.

"But after this disgusting stuff," he motioned to the ectoplasm, and I frowned. Ectoplasm was me, my essence, and he called it disgusting? Hurtful! And we were such chums before the Titanesses came and ruined the party! "Stuck my foot to the sidewalk, well, let's just say I've been doing my research." Yeah, no duh, Einstein.

"Which means?" Robin pressed.

"Pushy," the thief grumbled, but I didn't smile this time, still pouting from the disgusting comment. At the Titans' meaningful look, he rolled his eyes _again_ and opened his mouth. "I mean, I've read the papers recently, and I knew this stuff meant that it wasn't you clowns…" Ooh, touching a nerve. "…it was Phantom."

"DId he say anything to you?" Raven wondered seriously.

"A lot," the thief shrugged. "Would you like to to recount it word for word?" This, of course, was done justice by being packed with so much sarcasm a robot could understand…or an alien, in this instance.

"Yes, actually," Robin murmured, getting up close and personal in thief-boy's face. "That's exactly what we want."

The thief grumbled under his breath, a lot like a scolded child would. "Alright, okay. It only happened a little bit ago, so I should be able to remember. And let me tell you right now, as a forewarning," the thief winked at Robin. "Phantom is an awful lot more fun than you jokes, because he actually cracks jokes." Okay, so maybe I forgive him for the disgusting comment.

"So, It started out with me saying something like, 'Phantom?'" the thief began. "And then, after a dramatic pause…" Dramatic pause? Did I pause? "…he confirmed it, that he was indeed Phantom."

"Exact words," demanded Robin.

"Fine!" the thief threw up his hands in frustration. "Look into my flashback!" and he looked somewhere to the left of Cyborg's shoulder, dreamy expression taking over his face.

Robin grabbed his shoulder and pulled the thief's face so it level with his own. "We're serious," he growled.

"Then you'll have to keep up," the thief sighed. "So I got stuck to the dirty sidewalk with glowing green grossness." Hmm, award for alliteration, or offense for being called gross. Hard decision. "And then I went,'Phantom?' and he went 'You got that right!' and I couldn't tell where his voice was coming from, so I went 'Where, where are you?' and he said 'I think the better question is who am I. At least that's what all the other guys have been asking. Let's look at my titles, but wait, you already know who I am, the Phantom' but he sounded pretty cool when he said that." Oh yeah, point for me! Even the thief thinks I'm cool, and I glued him to the sidewalk with 'grossness'.

"Go on," Cyborg instructed, but he was messing with his arm, or, erm, arm panel.

"So then I did the reasonable thing and asked what the heck the gross stuff was that was sticking me to the sidewalk, and Phantom said 'magic', but it was sarcastic."

"Rae?" Cyborg asked, looking to his purple-haired friend.

"It's not any magic, that's for sure," she murmured, messing with a little of the ectoplasm.

"Didn't I just say it was sarcastic?" the thief asked, but the question wasn't directed at anybody.

"Resume," Robin ordered. I momentarily glanced to Starfire, who was being oddly quiet, but it seemed she was a little ashamed at failing at spotting the dude. I would console her, saying that this guy knew their moves, except that odds were my head would get blown off as soon as I became visible, followed by a quick resurrection, made possible because of my ghostliness, and then harsh questioning by the Titans, which would probably kill me again.

"He asked why I seemed spooked of him but not you guys," the thief continued. "And I told him that you guys had been around for a while now, we knew you and we didn't have to fear, you know, _death_ from you," Okay, so now he was just sugarcoating it. "But nobody knows if this goop has any lasting effects that are…worse than they seem." Wait, was he implying he thought that I consciously killed people with my ectoplasm. Not only was the implication that my essence was poisonous monumentally offensive, but how dare he accuse me of consciously hurting people besides a few smart-ass comments and a non-permanent glue job.

"We've analyzed the goo back in Titan Tower," Robin intoned, all serious. "It's not harmful, and it doesn't do much besides stick you to anything. It never seems to dry out, like a super-superglue formula, but no damage will come to you." This didn't seem to bring the thief any extra relief, and perhaps this was because he wasn't as scared of my goo as he made himself out to be. Oh, you are so making me look bad, mister! Just because you're going to jail doesn't mean you have to put the Titans on my ass! "Continue," Robin instructed.

"Well, he said something witty about thanks. Like, i said 'you're a mystery' and he was like 'thanks! That makes me feel tingly inside!' or something. Then he told me than when I tripped I made to much noise, and that he had to go before you guys came so he didn't get caught by you, and he seems to be under the impression that you'll hurt him, or throw him in jail, or something stupid like that. Then he flung another glob of the glowing stuff at my left foot and left."

Robin nodded to the other members of the team. "Basically the same as every other encounter," he recounted. "Swoops in, sticks the thief to something, banters a bit, and then leaves before we get here. He definitely has the hero vibe, but if we could only talk to him!" Oh, I think I might have frustrated little Robby.

Right on time, the police sirens ceased and several policemen walked over, and stared at the thief stuck to the sidewalk. The Chief of Police headed over to Robin. "Phantom again?" he wondered, and I was absolutely _ecstatic_ that I was a topic to chat about between superheroes and policemen.

"Yeah, same deal," Robin confirmed. "Can you pack up here? We've got to go make sure a kid who got hit with an energy blast from those Hive kids earlier is still alright, and check to see if we didn't break any of his stuff when we moved it, to see if we owe him anything." Oh, well that would be amazingly nice of you Robin, if half the things in my stuff weren't irreplaceable.

Oh crap. I just remembered something. I have a ghost, half a bottle of ectoplasm, and a bunch of other incriminating shit in my bag that, if the Titans find, will not only land them a huge clue on the identity of Phantom, (a big cartoon arrow pointing to me), because ectoplasm and ectoplasm are both, guess what, ectoplasm! Just because one of them is pure from the Zone and one comes from my energy, doesn't mean they're different enough to go through Cyborg scientific examination, and not be basically the same thing, not to mention what would happen to Nargle, the name of the ghost blob which I named him with. Did that sentence make sense?

Hurriedly, I ducked underground and swung back towards the park, popping my head up every once in a while. In an odd way, I kinda felt like a dolphin surfacing every once in awhile out of the ocean, and even tried to jump like one. My body isn't all flexible or built for that, but it was pretty epic for somebody with human structure, and it was a shame I was invisible and nobody saw it but me. I would have gotten three random people to hold up cares with the number ten on them, like in the cartoons.

When I got to the bench, I spotted my bag immediately, which made me very, very happy, but I was less happy when I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw that the Titans were starting to come over. I quickly rifled through the bag to make sure that the thermos was still safe and secure, which it was, but there was bad news too. "Oh, no, no, come on!" Part of me wanted to scream with discontent, and part of me was trying to avoid being caught, but it was still frustrated.

I picked up the neck of the root-beer bottle which had been carrying the ectoplasm and beheld that the body of the bottle was still intact, but now only contained a fit of what the bottle had once held. Risking a look over my shoulder at the advancing Titans, who were beginning to see that the kid they'd left behind was no longer there, I grabbed the root-beer bottle, or what was left of it, and downed the ectoplasm in a single gulp, the resulting energy zing almost overtaking, and I knew if I was on the visible spectrum my glow would have increased.

I shook my head to clear the ectoplasm zing, even though it seemed everything was sharper and more realistic than before, and shoved the glass bottle remains back in my now ectoplasm soaked bag. Zipping the bag closed, my invisibility and intangibility spread to it just as the Titans came close enough to clearly see that the bag they'd conveniently tucked beneath the bench and almost out of sight was now gone with the kid they'd rescued. Okay, let me be the first to say that was close, but like I want pure ectoplasm spilling out and fertilizing the ground. Do you even know what that would do to the grass? I don't. Probably make it glow. Or die.

I exhaled in relief as I sped away from the area, my now intangible backpack mounted on my back. That was a lot closer than comfort.

**NARGLE! Sonochu, again, gracias. Any ending notes? Hmm... I dunno, I put all the good stuff at the beginning. Stats for my word game are up there! I'm dominating! I'm betting the hole I mended was pretty obvious after that last part, but tell me you know anyway! HaVe a NiCe DaY! I'm sorry, I needed to do that weird capital-lowercase thing. HAVE A NICE DAY!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Behehehehehehehe! Winner! Me!**

**ItTicklesLikeCrazy: 36**

**Mysterious Friend: 14**

**He gave up after I breached 30, saying he proclaimed me the winner. I kept on prattling off words anyway until he told me i better shut up before he duct tape my mouth shut. Duct tape is painful when you pull it off, especially on faces, so I shut up, with a little prompting from my supremely pissed ****_other_**** friend who sits by both of us and occasional holds a finger gun to her head when Mysterious Friend and I get too chatty or too at each others throats. **

**Also, notice the score? Notice? Look closer! Proof of my obsessive nature, I had to make sure the score measured exactly fifty, and I had to make sure I was I who won. A big thanks to all of you who participated. Mysterious Friend admits that it was clever to ask for help from you guys, though he's a little upset. I pointed out he had an unfair advantage anyway because he reads books with more vocabulary than a dictionary while I prefer books at a high school Sophomore-Senior level. That's advanced since I'm not out of middle school...yet. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Yes, I read. I read, like, a book a day, no exaggeration. Well, I used to read a book, or two, a day, before I got into this awesome thing called Fanfiction. Then i started writing it and doing nothing else. But yeah, i don't mean to boast (I totally do, but hey, I deserve to brag a little, plus it's not like anybody is reading this ridiculously long authors note) but my read-speed is fast. I'd never say as fast as it gets, because I'm betting next to the world's fastest reader, I'm a snail, but yeah, I read much faster than normal.**

**Good news! My Pandora account finally stopped crapping all over my parade! I can finally listen to music without flipping to youtube every couple of minutes or listening to those super long, after-a-while-becomes-super-annoying-because-it's-just-repeating-itself songs. YAY!**

**I think I've babbled and bothered you enough. Any more and there will be more authors note than chapter. I might get a slap on the wrist for that. READ AND ENJOY!**

"Well, Nargle," I muttered, taking the thermos out of my pack. "Dump, sweet dump." I uncapped the thermos and pressed release, aiming it at an old cardboard box I'd picked up, which reminded me of the Box Ghost. You know, I kind of missed him, in an 'I kinda miss pulverizing you for waking me up' kinda way.

The thermos's light faded and I saw Nargle comfortable in the cardboard box, red eyes blinking up at me. "Yeah, I know," I muttered, motioning around the place. "It's not that impressive, but hey, I don't have that much money, I don't have a legal guardian, and I need to supply for myself, and now you too. So what, it's a cruddy one-room apartment and I have three obnoxious teenage boys sharing the one above me and an old lady with an obsession with moths below me. At least it's not a cardboard box on the street-side."

Nargle gurgled. "Well you're the size of a cardboard box," I defended, turning away. Another gurgle came from behind me. I sighed. "I suppose you're hungry, right? You wouldn't happen to know a place where I can get free ectoplasm? I'm hungry too, but I can't find much ectoplasm at times, so I conserve it for times when I need serious firepower, if ever, and the rest of the time I eat like a human.

I turned back to the little ghost creature just in time to watch it blink thrice, and burble. "Is that sympathy?" I wondered, reaching a hand down into the box and stroking what I assumed was Nargle's head. "Yeah, because I'ma halfa I can deal with human food all the time, but all human and no ghost when I'm half ghost? Not bad for me, but it feels…uncomfortable." Nargle gurgled. I sighed. "You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?" I asked. Nargle blinked at me, and I grinned at it.

"Okay," I hummed, getting up and carrying the box that contained Nargle with. I set it on the coffee table I'd managed to get at a garage sale with some sheets that didn't look like moth chew toys. The moths, of course, came from below me, from a wonderful elderly woman named Delores who kept several moths as pets. She creeped me out, but she did give me free muffins all the time, so that's a plus.

I bent over and rifled under my bed, which was adorned with only kind of moth-bitten sheets, and finally my fingertips found what I was looking for. I pulled the torn up, wrinkled, and otherwise decayed plastic bag out from under the bed and carefully lifted its contents out and onto the bed. Yes, the books were dusty and old, but dusty and old books are always the best kind. Unless, of course, you have a severe dust allergy. Then they might not be the best.

"You know," I verbalized, sending a wayward glance towards Nargle. "I should be able to this naturally, but I did nearly fail Spanish 1. I thought it was just because I never got any sleep." I opened one of the books gingerly, the pages soft and fragile to my hands. I flipped each page, one by one, and yes, that way it took forever to get to the page I wanted, but I liked the smell of the book. Not only does the smell of dusty book make you feel smarter, it reminded me of how Sam always smelled like dusty book.

"Here we are!" I announced loudly, but Nargle just blinked at me, once again proving to me that he could barely understand a garbled word that popped out of my mouth. Hopefully I could change that. I studied the page, the designs, neat etchings with what seemed like an ancient form of pencil, and let my eyes glaze over as I stared at the page. I traced the design with my pinky finger, even, before looking up and smiling hopefully at Nargle. He burbled.

"_Hey buddy_," I mumbled, setting the book down gently. "_Did that make any difference?_" Nargle blinked at me twice, and then his left eye closed, then opened, and the same happened with the right.

"_Guess not," _I murmured. "_I'll have to call Sam and Jazz and tell them the magic psycho-trick with the ghost language-English switch thingy didn't work, but that's not so bad." _Nargle burped, literally burped. I stared, unimpressed, at him, or her, or it. Let's go with him, that makes things less awkward.

I grabbed the book carefully, closed it gently, and lay it into the plastic bag, along with the rest of the books I'd gotten out. The plastic bag was then slid under the bed along with the few other bags. Between Sam, Jazz, Tucker, and my parents, I was lucky I was able to narrow it down to a little over a two dozen books that they made me keep full of neat ghost tricks, powers, tips, psycho-tricks, and history. Ugh…sometimes life was difficult. Or, erm, afterlife.

You know, now that I was thinking about it, it would be nice to call one of them. I'd need to find some quarters, for a pay phone and stuff. I'd brought my cell phone from Amity with me, but it had gotten destroyed in, you guessed, a thief catch. (Thief grab? Thief snatch?) A very long painful endeavor, both physically and emotionally hurtful, and it involved a couple nicely placed alleys, a semi truck, three fire hydrants, and a pair of stiletto high heels (No you sickos, I was not the one wearing them).

"_Let's see if I can find some quarters," _I murmured, partially to myself, partially to the adorable little ghost blob in the cardboard box next to me. I found myself smiling at the cute creature while I dug through the floorboards, even, to find loose change. I got about fifty cents, give or take a few pennies, and put the pile of loose change on the table top next to Nargle's box.

"_Wel_l, th_at w_as an ad_vent_ur_e," _I muttered to Nargle, and then felt my eyes widen. I turned to the ghost blob, who blinked. "Di_d you _hea_r th_at we_ird_ ton_e in m_y voi_ce?_" I gasped. "_I d_id i_t ag_ain!"

And suddenly, me being the genius I am, I got it. Since I was now trying to speak English, or at least focusing on the thoughts of speaking to my sister and friends in English, I was speaking English, but only partly. I must have transitioned to ghost language without realizing, because, you know, I'm a ghost. Hopefully, it wouldn't be a problem. In fact, probably not. It's not like this was my first time transferring to ghost language, and I can guarantee, no matter what, the first time will always remain the worst in my heart. Not even going to go into that.

"Okay," I muttered, focusing on English. "So I guess you understand equally with English or Ghost. Good to know. But, the question is, how am I going to get rid of you?" Nargle burbled. "Hey, don't take offense! I don't mean to imply I want to get rid of you, it's just a few things. One, if anybody, and I mean anybody, walks in a finds you, I'll be in deep shit. Not only will the owner of the building explode, probably, but you do look an awful lot like the stuff I've been sticking people to buildings with." Nargle bubbled. "Just saying," I excused.

"And also," I added. "I can't afford a pet,_ even a ghost pe_t. I mean, I could feed you my own ectoplasm, but not e_ven touching down on how disgus_ting that would be, you could drain me, w_hich would be even worse_, and I don't have very m_uch pure ectoplasm. I mean, occasi_onally a guy has to treat himself, right?" Nargle blinked. I sighed. "I don't think you understand, little guy. Ectoplasm is like, like…like adrenaline and alcohol and drugs, but with no risk and_ no drunk danger. I mean, my sens_es elevate and everything is so much more clearer, and I fe_el better, and all my emotions are just like a pu_nch in the gut, but th_ey feel good, and it's such a thrill, but there's no risk, no compromise to feel that way. I_ don't have to hurt people, or do bad things, and there are no bad effects, because I come down easy." Nargle just looked at me, and I sighed again, running a hand through my hair. "Never mind," I told him. "And I only switched to ghost language a few times. Win!"

"You know," I mumbled. "Sometimes I think I talk to much." I could have sworn Nargle was laughing at me, so I gave him a brief evil eye, but apparently he didn't get the point. "Shut up," I muttered, and then switched positions so I was lying on my back and staring at the ceiling. It'd been a longer day than I needed, and even though the ectoplasm had gotten me a zing, it was just barely enough to not keep me going, but tug my instincts. Translation, all that happened today, coupled with ghostly side effects and a short nap: I was falling asleep.

Part of me knew I shouldn't because, I mean, I had school, and I couldn't afford my body attempting another shift with swimming and everything, but heck, tomorrow was Friday, and I could deal with this crap over the weekend. So, stupidly, I let my eyes drift closed like a chump. Slowly and steadily, and everything seemed so much better. For some reason, Nargle comforted me, probably just being around something else remotely ghostly besides the random bottles of ectoplasm I kept hidden 'round the place.

There was comfort around me, and I imagine somebody normal would describe it as 'soft and warm' but this wasn't 'soft and warm'. That's not how comfort worked for us half-ghost freaks, you see. It was more 'soft and comfortably cool but not really cool so much as just a few degrees below room temperature so you just want to stay in the same position and not move no matter what'. Yeah, that was it.

But anyway, my bed suddenly became like a giant, fluffy, soft-but-not-too-squishy pillow and I sank into sleep like a pro (or chump, depending on your point of view).

(LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK)

I woke up and it was dark outside, naturally. I groaned to myself, sitting up, because I knew there was no way I was getting more sleep until at least twenty-four hours have passed. Mentally, I reprimanded myself for letting me fall asleep again, because that was a bad thing to do. Bad, bad Danny! Bad Danny! Bad! And then my mind self whimpers and crawls into a corner and bursts into tears, because, hey, it was only following what it thinks it's supposed to do. Become nocturnal. Unfortunately for me, school thought I was supposed to rise with the sun, so i had to push against it. I would totally go against school but for a few reasons.

One, I needed school. If I ever, ever, wanted to somehow chase that astronaut dream, which looked pretty hopeless in being official, but I could go into space any time I wanted because I didn't need to breathe and I was betting I could find means to get up to that speed. But, if I ever wanted it to be official, and awesome like, and have my hair on the big screen black instead of white, I would need to get schooled.

Two, I'd kinda been towed into it when I'd gotten here, and it would look pretty strange if I just backed out now, especially if people still saw me around, or, now that I'd associated with the Titans, even though nobody except them and me our age knew, it would still be complicated and awkward, or at least it could get to that point, and zing, zang, zoom! Boom! Instant secret identity blown. I didn't know what Robin wanted me for, but I didn't have the urge to find out, or at least yet. maybe I'd set up a secret meeting with soup-can phones and stuff later, but for now, well, let's just avoid the Bird Brain.

Third and finally, I was afraid that my _amigos_ would hunt me down and chop me to bits if I ran out on them now. The teachers might report it, since technically I couldn't get any real paperwork, and then the authorities would be after me, but that wouldn't be my biggest problem. If Trench and Courtney ever stopped flirting enough to notice my absence, I have the distinct feeling they'd try to find me to rub their relationship in my face some more, and would keep looking until they found me, even if that meant walking right into a super-villian's trap.

You see, normally, this is where people call me paranoid for suspecting super-villianry. But in Jump, every third block was a new psycho looking for an adversary to try and battle. Literally. Two weeks ago some creeper tracked me down as Phantom, though thankfully I stayed out of view, and challenged me to a battle to the death. I didn't kill him, of course, and I'm still alive, or, umm, most of the way, so obviously it didn't go down like he planned. Poor guy threw a fit.

Crazy mental cases, and I thought Amity made you crazy. At least you know what's up with ghosts, and they don't go simple. It's either take over the world, get more power, or feed your obsession. No stupid thieving attempts, no practice sessions, because after a while, I became their ultimate challenge, and they practiced against me to fight me. Annoying ghosts, but you kind of missed them.

Something suddenly flickered out outside my window, and the room went dark, except for the fact that I had increased night vision, like a pro. I strolled over to the window and peeked out, and realized the thing that had gone out was a streetlight. when it was late enough at night, of course they turned off the street lamps. It only made sense, energy conservation and all.

I sighed, resigned to the fact I was not sleeping tonight. I had hardly anything to do in the apartment, sense the load of homework hadn't been too heavy, and I didn't have the cash-money to deal with cell phone, internet, cable, even a tiny little game console. It sucked sometimes, but I spent a lot of my time having fun with moronic thieves, so, I guess it wasn't as bad as it could be.

I looked over at Nargle, who was puttering sleepily. I would have bet he was nocturnal, like most ghosts, including me, but he was exhausted from today. The thermos had a way of keeping you awake and kicking, and it was a very annoying way, at that.

I stretched, muscles in my back straining and popping in a very satisfying way. I grinned to myself, touched Nargle's head gently, then withdrew my hand and changed forms, letting the energy rings do whatever the hell they wanted, brightness and distance and transformation way. They liked to be dramatic, or maybe they just read off my inner Drama King, But if any mysterious pedestrians somehow managed to see the flash, they wouldn't care, They would think it was somebody doing something stupid, or something like that.

I felt a hasty grin stretch across my face, because I was still just a little loaded from my beautiful ectoplasm run, and I was a powerful ghost in my natural setting, with no stupid lesser foes who obviously couldn't do anything against me. I was free!

I laughed, soaring through the wall and window into the comfortably cool night air, and breathed a huge breath of it. It felt good inside my lungs, and cleared my head. The stars were spectacular, and I flew up higher just to enjoy the spectacular amazing-ocity of everything and anything and ooh, goodness I sounded high, but I didn't care. I gave off a loud laugh, and then a "WHOOP!" of joy and rocketed through the sky at half speed, which was still awesomely fast. Not face-peeling, of course, but awesome.

"You know!" I announced to myself. "This almost makes this a good day. I feel pretty good, considering." I inhaled again and looped though the skies, attepting to stifle my exclamations of happiness, but I have a feeling I failed.

In the middle of a loop, though, I suddenly crashed into something. I immediately righted myself and opened my eyes, only to suck in a breath at the puzzled face of a very familiar orange-skinned alien.

**For authors note read some of the crap I typed at the beginning. Farewell.**


	9. Chapter 9

**So, just so everybody knows, this is NOT, NOT, NOTNOTNOTNOTNOT Starfire/Danny. NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO! It is NOT! Just saying. Again...**

**NOT STARFIRE X DANNY!**

**They're friends, but I know at least one of the readers might get an idea from this chapter below, I probably would have. JUST FRIENDS! Unless, of course, a gigantic amount of you want it Starfire X Danny. I kinda do, since I know Sam's not really a big part of the story, but I feel like it would ruin things. So no, this story is Sam X Danny, unless voted otherwise.**

**Okay, onward.**

**I'm crapping out stories like those freaky little rabbit things do chocolate when you press their ears down. You know those things? Those things freak me out...but anywho, I've got Supernatural/Danny Phantom SQUARED! Two of those, hopefully both of those aren't ****_total_**** pieces of crap. I've got Danny Phantom/Percy Jackson UNO, and Supernatural/Percy Jackson ditto, just one. I know this is liek advertising for my own stories, stupid, I know, but hey, a girl can try. If you want to check any of those out, feel FREE.**

**If you guys have any input for this story, PM, review, morse code, telegraph (though how you would get my address is a mystery) anything, if you want to ****_possibly_**** because I make no promises because my writing inspiration is a mysterious thing and seems to only be active on weekends, when it ends up in overdrive, but if you want to possibly improve this story, because, you know, you can hardly improve perfection (no, this story has a lot to improve on. Nowhere near perfection. I WISH!) just contact me somehow and I'll try, kay?**

**ONWARD!**

_Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh CRAP! _I thought as the rest of my thoughts circled in a big, fat tornado of _you're screwed, Danny-boy_.

"Hello," Starfire greeted nicely, and after mentally slapping myself, I got my lazy ass in gear, and managed a weak smile.

"Heh, heh, hi," I stuttered. _Great job Fenton, that doesn't sound suspicious at all_.

"Hello," she repeated. "I'm Starfire. What is your name?"

"Uhhh…" I swear she could probably see the exhaust coming out of my ears s my brain overworked itself. "My, my name is…Danny." _Oh crap. Great job Fenton, now you're even more screwed. _

"Hello Dan-ny," the pretty alien girl greeted, her green eyes suddenly appearing doe-like. "Would you like to be my friend?"

_Woah, whoa, wait. I call bluff. There is no way in hell this is not turning sour. How is this not going bad for me? _"Uhh, yeah, sure. You seem nice."

"Thanks!" she exclaimed wildly, smiling. I grinned nervously, not really sure what to do. I was wondering if it looked more like an ugly leer or grimace than I smile when she spoke again. "I haven't seen you around before, Dan-ny," she pronounced my name with a small pause and extra emphasis on the Y.

"I haven't been around for long," I replied casually, trying to force myself to seem nonchalant even though my inner mind had all but taken physical form and started slapping me with an alarm clock to tell me that I was in deep shit right now. '"Just out of curiosity," I breached. "And, heh, I guess a little self-preservation, you don't think I have any malicious intent?"

Starfire paused, and gave me a strange look. "Do you?"

"No!" I exclaimed, a little too loudly. I held my hands out. "No, no! It's just, hey, some people thought that I was bad news from where I came from, but no, no, I'm not a villain." I shot her a sideways look. "So…what are you doing out here at this time of night?"

"I could ask you the same question, Dan-ny," she muttered, and I nearly smiled, just because of the way she said it, both the statement and my name.

I shrugged. "Couldn't sleep, and I thought, hey, now seems like a nice night for a relaxing fly."

"The same," said she. "It's a beautiful night, and I do enjoy flying above the city."

"Yeah," I agreed. "It's beautiful at night, especially when it's not being robbed, but I guess you would know about it being robbed, you being you and all. Heh heh."_Oh my God, Fenton, shut up before you start _really_ babbling. You sound like a total moron. _

"Yes," she stated simply, and I took that as a good sign. "Though robbers no longer seem to be a problem."

"What?" I wondered, already suspecting. "Why?"

"A new face called 'the Phantom'." Starfire sighed next to me in the air. "I believe he is a hero, and the other Titans agree, seeing as he catches the thieves and helps us with our job, but it frustrates Robin that he hides in the shadows. Robin says it makes the Phantom seem like a criminal, the way he always hides away in the mysterious. We're not really sure how to deal with the Phantom."

"Maybe this Phantom guy is just as unsure about you," I blurted before I could bite my tongue and stop myself. Damage done, I continued, but with a bit more guarded words. "I mean, it's possible he's afraid you'll judge him harshly and throw him in prison, even though he has good intent. He catches the thieves, right? So that makes him a hero, right?"

"Correct!" Starfire agreed.

"Well…maybe this Phantom dude doesn't want to be judged or pressured by you guys. Undoubtedly, you'll monitor him, since he'd in _your_ city, and that will probably make you guys feel like you're in control of him. maybe he doesn't want to risk being bossed around or carefully watched, he just wants to help people?" My inner mind was screaming at my tongue to _shut up_ or it was going to come down there and chop it of itself. My tongue ignored the threat. "I mean, from what I've read in the newspapers and stuff, Phantom hasn't done anything wrong, besides avoid you guys, and maybe he'd rather just operate on his own." I finally managed to get a clamp on my tongue, even resorting to biting down on the tip of it. Sad, how I didn't have any control over my own miscellaneous body parts.

"Perhaps," Starfire considered. "I think I'll share your opinion with the other Titans. They might find interest in it, and Robin might benefit from this shift of opinion." I shared a smile with her. "Thank you, Dan-ny."

"Actually," I ventured. "It's pronounced Danny."

"Dan-ny?" Starfire tried.

"Danny," I repeated, pronouncing it normally.

"Da-nny?"

"Danny."

"Dnny?"

"Danny."

"Dann-yy?"

Danny."

"Dannie?"

"Danny."

"Daany?"

"Danny."

"Danny?"

"There we go!" I exclaimed happily, and Starfire beamed proudly.

"Danny!" she repeated joyfully, and I found myself smiling broadly at her.

"Great!" I enthused with her, and she giggled.

"So, Danny," she began, using the correct pronunciation of my name. "You can fly, like me. Can you do anything else?"

I froze slightly, but knew it would look suspicious if I froze up now. "You mean like super-powers?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

"Well…" I started, and decided to stick with the simple, basic, truth. "As you can see," I flew up and around to emphasize. "I glow."

Starfire giggled. "Like a firefly," she added, and we both laughed.

"And I can go invisible," I went on, demonstrating by fading from the visible spectrum. Starfire's all-green eyes widened in surprise, and I popped back into visibility, startling her.

"Wonderful!" she said, clapping softly. I grinned.

"I can also go through things," I finished, turning my hand intangible and reaching it through my own chest. Starfire's mouth opened in a small 'o' form. I held out my intangible arm to her and she looked at it curiously before reaching up a finger and touching my palm…or attempting to. Her entire hand went right through, and she gasped in shock.

"Ooh!" she exclaimed.

I let the hand become tangible again, and held it up. "Don't worry," I assured her."I'm fine."

Tentatively, she reached out a hand and touched my palm again, but this time she actually could, and laid both hands all over my hand, feeling it all over to make sure it was real before withdrawing her hands and setting them at her side.

"And, with my natural glow, I can increase it so I'm like a flashlight," I concluded, and made my hand light up like a disco ball. Starfire ogled at the hand, and I smiled at her antics. "And I already know what you can do."

"You do?" she wondered, looking puzzled.

"I haven't been around very long, but long enough to see you and your team in action several times," I said. "You guys look pretty impressive, energy blasts and magic and shape shifting and martial arts." Starfire blushed. "Seriously, I don't want to sound like an annoying fan boy, but I'm just saying, you pack a serious punch."

"Thank you, Danny," Starfire said. I smiled softly.

"You're welcome." I noticed that both of us were just hovering in the air, and motioned for her to follow me. "Come on."

The orange-skinned alien bobbed after me as I led her over to the edge of a reasonably tall sky-scraper and sat on the ledge where a few random, unnecessary gargoyles were placed, scooting closer to the stone monster and patting the spot next to me invitingly. She flew over and perched on the spot next to me, swinging her legs.

"So…" I tried to find something to say that wouldn't make anything more awkward or make her suddenly decide I was a super-villain set on mass destruction and kill me then.

"How long have you been around?" Starfire asked, kicking her legs faster and faster and watching the silver streaks her GoGo boots became.

"A few months," I said offhandedly, hoping she didn't make the connection between Phantom and myself. "I'm trying to find a new place to settle down, establish myself."

"Why do you need a new place?" she wondered innocently.

I shrugged, feeling that, hey, if this wasn't going horribly, I may as well tell the truth, that when, and yes, I do mean when, she finds out, maybe she won't try to kill me immediately. "My old town got destroyed by a super villain. He was put away, beck to prison and all, but the town was declared 'toxic' and nobody could live there anymore, so everybody went their different ways. I ended up here."

"I am glad," Starfire proclaimed, and at my weird look, continued. "Not that your home was destroyed, but that you ended up here, because now I have gained a new friend!"

I smiled at her happily. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Yes," she repeated, then yawned loudly.

"You tired?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow with an amused expression.

"Perhaps," she consented, but the affect was ruined because she yawned again at the end of the word.

"You should go to sleep," I instructed, pushing of of the building with the palms of my hands and hovering before her, and stretching out a hand. With a small smile, she took it and pulled herself into the air. I released her hand after and started to fly in the direction of Titans Tower.

"Come on," I told her, beaconing with a hand. She yawned loudly again, and nodded, following me, and I led her in the direction of Titans Tower. Soon, she flew level to me, and then ahead of me, and when we got over the water to the bay, I let myself vanish from sight, and watched her continue on until she got to the tower and went through the titanium doors before looping back to _invisibly_ fly over the city some more.

**Yay! Another chapter finished. If you hated it, please feel free to share your feelings. Same if you liked it, but that don't matta. Okay, so, Have A Nice Day, I guess. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey! So, I know that this chapter is pretty much just a filler, but face it, I needed one of these here. Yes, you waited like a week for a filler. Deal with it. Fillers take a while to write because they're boring and frankly, I'm not that good at writing romance. Also, I'm listening to some song in a foreign language that sort of sounds like Taylor Swift, if she were what, Japanese? Something like that, but just in case you guys want to know about the crap I listen to at 9:06 at night. Whatever.**

**So...**

**Idiosyncratic (Id-ie-o-sin-cra-tick) (I don't think I can do pronunciations very well) Meaning: Peculiar or individual**

**ENJOY!**

"Hey!" A voice greeted me when me head came up for air, but before I could respond I was underwater doing another lap. I flew through the water and came up for air only two times between this wall and when I stopped, popping my head up and grabbing onto the wall, looking up at the person standing at the edge of the pool. Courtney.

"Icy?" She laughed my nickname. "What are you doing here this early? How long have you been here? I know we have a swim meet next Saturday, but you're not normally here this early."

If only she knew. I'd been here for the last few hours, because the ectoplasm and nocturnalism and everything else, and ghost language, well, there was no sleep to be found. I simply shrugged at her. "I couldn't sleep, I came in early."

"You were a lot faster than I've ever seen you go," …oops, I'd thought nobody was around and allowed myself to excel a little too much. "Don't let me stop you, you were doing great! You should come in early and practice more often if _that_ speed is the result. You were almost as fast as Vanessa!" Vanessa, the forth-fastest swimmer on the team. maybe I _had_ been keeping my guard up. A pat on the back for my subconscious mind. Because, heck, I knew how fast I could go it I tried, but nobody else did.

"How about I backstroke," I compromised. "That way i can listen as you talk to me."

Courtney placed her hand on her hip. "And why would I talk to you when you were doing so well?"

I stuck my bottom lip out. "Because I'm lonely…"

"You're going to have to do better than than," she told me, laughing.

I sighed. "Because you want to know more about my purple-eyed almost-girlfriend."

"_That_," she over pronounced the word, letting the second T come off sharp. "Is an excellent point. Get backstroking, Ice."

"Yes, Sir! " I did a fake military salute, Courtney frowned at me, and I flipped my legs up so I was floating on the surface of the water on my back. Slowly, leisurely, I windmilled my arms so I began moving towards the opposite end of the pool at a steady pace.

"So…details?" Courtney's voice came to my ears over the sound of the moving, splashing water.

"Her name was, is, Sam," I began. "I liked her a lot, for a while actually, I just didn't really notice because my life was…hectic."

"Hectic?" Courtney questioned with a giggle.

"Hectic," I repeated. "My sister knew the answer to every question in the world, and I was _constantly_ being compared to her, whether it teachers, parents, my own classmates. I only had two friends, plus my sister, and one of them was Sam. Bullies thought an Icy sandwich was a nice appetizer before lunch, especially this one guy, and he was the Quarterback, so everybody else thought they should pick on me too!"

"He sounds like a douche bag," Courtney commented, and I snickered, because, well, just because. "Nah. When I moved, he apologized, and so did a lot of people. If was pretty shocking for me, of course."

"I can imagine," Courtney joked. "I'd be shell-shocked."

"You've never been bullied," I grumbled, and my arm hit the wall. I turned underwater, flipped upside down, and surfaced again, but was spared from hearing her reaction. I began backstroking again. "My parents weren't always there, because they had the job off their dreams, and they went off chasing their hopes. My sister and I took care of each other, mostly her taking care of me. Coupled with a few interesting secrets special to me, and yeah, my life was hectic."

"O-kay," Courtney accepted. "More about Sam."

"Her name was actually Samantha," the word felt weird in my mouth. It always had been, and always would be Sam. Just Sam. "You know those games when your friends describe you with just one word? Her word was idiosyncratic."

Courtney didn't respond for a bit. "I'm sorry, Icy, I have no idea what that means."

I laughed, but with closed mouth so I didn't get some splash from my backstroke in my mouth. "Idiosyncratic is a unique version of the word unique, because that's what she was. A unique version of unique."

Courtney giggled. "That's so sweet. I bet she'd blush if she were here."

"Or kick me in the shin," I suggested. "Because she'd know that I got that word straight out of the thesaurus and not by myself, but then apologize and say thanks, but not profusely."

"Now you're just using big words to try and confuse me," Courtney accused.

"Is it working?" I wondered, and heard a little offended sound from Courtney before something hard hit my stomach. I stopped swimming and became upright in the water, looking around for the object Courtney had thrown. I saw her purple water bottle floating a few feet away and swam after it, tossing it to her. "So it is working?" She held up the water bottle threateningly, and I put my hands up in a gesture of innocence.

"Keep swimming," she ordered, and I obliged, seeing her lower the water bottle. "Keep talking."

"Alrighty then," I agreed, hitting the wall and ducking under, flipping around, turning upside down, and surfacing. "She always wore the same pair of combat boots, and I'm pretty sure they had steel toes or something, because it hurt a lot more than it should have when she kicked you. She would always kick you, shin, ankle, soft spot," Courtney giggled. "If you called her Samantha, and she threatened you with them if you called her Sammy, thought somehow her Mom got off with calling her Sammy-kins, Samantha, and anything else too. I'm pretty sure she just didn't want to invoke her mother's fluffy, pink fury."

"Fluffy pink fury?" Courtney questioned dryly, and I laughed at her tone.

"Sam was goth, as well as an Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian, if you know what that means, which I doubt."

"Nope." Courtney popped the P for extra emphasis.

"She didn't eat anything with face on it, corporate face or animal face." I found my muscles relaxing, thinking of Sam. Oh, cheesy chick-flick moment, kill me now! I'm fine with watching them, I can laugh at the cheesiness while Jazz and her teenage girl friends who are watching the movie next to me sigh happily, but being in one, oh, no no no. "And she was the sole heiress of this huge fortune for some deli invention or something, so her parents were loaded, but she kept it a secret because she didn't want any of the crap that came with the 'being rich' gig. Like, per say, hanging out with girls who'd rather watch you fail than watch you fly."

"Yeah, okay, I can understand that," Courtney muttered. "And her mom didn't like her gothic tendencies?"

"Look whose using big words now!" I pointed out. "But no, her mom wasn't a big fan of the whole goth thing. She called it a phase, and that soon Sam would be dressing up in pretty pink gowns and going to royal tea parties, even though Sam had tried to be different since forever, finally taking up being goth when she was only eight. In fact, her parents _hated_ me, just because they thought I was a bad influence on their daughter because I encouraged her to be original, as well as them thinking my family was a family of," the word even _tasted_ sour in my mouth. "_Freaks."_

"Yikes!" Courtney exclaimed. "I'm sensing a little bitterness here. Let's avoid that, shall we? Happy memories? I want to know happy things about her, please?"

I was only too happy to oblige, and after flipping underwater again and going at it in the other direction, I continued. "Okay, so Sam was idiosyncratic, unique, original. We had a trio, Sam, our other friend Tucker, and myself. Tucker was a fun, supportive, techno-geek of a best _best_ friend. Enough said abut him right now, because you asked about her. Memories about her, eh? Alright."

My arm hit the water wrong and sent a splash of water into my face just as I opened my mouth. I spat some of the water out of my mouth, corrected my arm's form, and continued, both swimming and talking.

"Sam was a good person. She cared about a heck of a lot more things than herself, even when I didn't. Sometimes there are days when you only look out for number one, which includes watching the people you love and would hurt if they got hurt. She always cared, even about people she didn't know too well. I mean-" I was cut off as a chill ran up my spine, and at first I assumed it was my ghost sense, but nothing came out of my mouth. My arms felt heavier than normal and I righted myself and looked to them, biting my lip to keep from cursing.

A layer of ice had formed around my arms and was slowly thickening by freezing the water of the pool in layer after layer. I glanced up at Courtney, who was staring up at the ceiling, but I knew she'd probably react in a few seconds to me stopping talking. I mean, water could have gotten in my mouth, but I would resume speaking.

"I mean," I tried to make my voice sound steady as I slowly stroked over to the side of the pool, trying to keep my arms above the water. My legs started feeling heavier too, and I knew that, without a doubt, ice was beginning to freeze around them too. And my chest. "She was the best person ever. Her conscience could never be dirty, because she helped so many people, and always amended every wrong tenfold to the incident." I reached the edge and pulled myself out, only then noticing, and cursing, that my arms had frizzed together because I'd been keeping them above the water and locked together, stupidly.

I stumbled to my feet on my ice-coated legs and started jog-running away from the pool, trying not to be loud. "Sorry Courtney, I think I need to skip out right now. I need to take care of something. I just remembered." I slipped into the boys locker room just as she began looking up, and immediately hobbled to a toilet stall, trying to keep my legs as far apart as possible. I locked the stall door behind me with frozen fingers and looked down at the ice, which was at least an inch and a half thick on my arms and still forming, though it was creeping along slower now that there was no water to boost the process.

I sucked in a deep breath and braced myself against either side of the stall, arms straight out in front of me. I sucked in another breath through my mouth, crushed my teeth together, and yanked my arms apart. The ice linking the two limbs shattered, pieces skittering across the locker room floor. I knew it was ghost ice, and would never melt unless prompted by another source of ghostly energy, like ghostly fire or ecto-energy, but I could frankly care less right now, because ice was creeping up my torso and shoulders now, and I was in danger of looking like a popsicle when the other boys arrived.

The witty banter part of my mind noted that, hey, now I really was Icy.

**in my defense, I simply had to say it before anybody else did. I'm referring to that last line, and that is a nice ender, isn't it? I like it, at least. **

**Again, I say, I'm sorry you had to wait around a weeks time for a filler that wasn't even very good besides the delving into Danny/Courtney friendship, because I never, ever, ever pair the main character with an OC, just because I feel that, unless they have no love interest hinted at at all (give me one example of that. I dare you) that's a bit ruining, right. I ****_especially_**** can't read Danny/OC or Sam/OC. I have very little preferences for the Titans, though, except that Robin/OC doesn't work either. I don't read stories where OCs are main character's love interests. Just a tidbit.**

**Yeah, that was my take on the Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian thing. I hope you liked it. That just makes sense to me, because really, Nasty Burger doesn't have a huge corporate face, but a place like McDonalds? No.**

**So...until next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**I LOVE IT! nerw nerw nerw nerw nuw nuw nuw nuh-nuw nuh nuw-nuw-nuw. ROCKING! I CRASHED MY CAR INTO THE BRIDGE I WATCHED I LET IT BUR-BURN!**

**Okay, I'm sane now. Don't worry. I guess you guys want the next chapter now, huh? WELL TOO BAD! You'll have to scroll down a little bit more because...well, just because. Because. Because. Because. . Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. . Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because|Because|Because|Because|BECAUSE!**

**Wow. Does anybody else kinda think the words as they type them, because (AH!) I do, and because (AH!) no longer sounds or looks like a real word to me. Did I misspell it? No. The suqiggly red thing isn't under it, so no. The squiggly red thing is, however, under my nerws, so heh. **

**Does anybody here like the Mentalist, as in the show, because I do. I haven't written anything for it, but I'm watching it (well not right NOW, but you guys know what I mean) and I like it.**

**I really wanted this note to be a long and boring one but I can't think of what else to say. Hmm...let's see. I'm eating goldfish right now and listening to a song. Guess what the song is! Look above ^^^ at the very tippidy-top and maybe, ****_maybe_**** you'll find it. If you can put song name to those lyrics you find, GOOD FOR YOU!**

**(also, I loved the word HUG)**

**ENJOY!**

I had to turn invisible and slip out of the locker room wall when the other boys started coming in. I really hoped that nobody really delved into why the hell the floor of that particular stall was slicked with ice. Maybe they would pass it off as some crazy weird thing the janitor was trying out.

Yeah, in my dreams.

I changed while passing through the wall, which saves time, and flew into the air. The ice kept my legs from melting into a ghostly tail, which was a bit obnoxious, but better than keeping my tail from melting into legs. Like I want to be some freaky ice-coated Danny merman. Oh, just the image makes me shiver. Bleh.

It took around forty-five minutes to almost an hour before the ice stopped forming, and that still left me completely coated in ice that never melted. Joy. This was going to be fun.

I flew to the park from the day before. Sat on a different bench, though, because, well, because that would be creepy. I passed my fingers up and down the ice until I found the end, the tiny space between my skin and the ice, since my skin wasn't actually made of ice. I took my hand out and then pushed my fingertips into that crevice, making sure that even though my arm was awkwardly frozen in the same position the ice of the two arms wasn't making contact so they didn't freeze together again, just incase the freezing started up again, and that I had a good grip. Hey, I didn't want to do this more times than I had to.

On only the third try I managed to get in a good enough position, only risking a tiny bit of ice and ice connection, and the ice shattered. I rubbed the shards off with my still-iced arm while trying to flail the other arm around enough to get the shards that still remained off. I should have thought about that before I tried, because you can really only choose one of those choices. It was a good thing I was still invisible, because otherwise people would probably think I was having a seizure or something and call an ambulance.

It only took something close to an hour and a half to get all the ice off completely, which was an accomplishment of HUGE proportions, seeing as this was the ice I _couldn't_ phase through with intangibility, since it became intangible too, and I had in pretty much completely covering my entire body, save for my head. It would take somebody normal, without super-strength and ecto-energy, forever, so ha!

Problem with that was that I realized I was very hungry, because I hadn't eaten breakfast or dinner, and I was supposed to be going to lunch soon, which I hadn't packed, so even with the ectoplasm in my system, I was hungry. Also, it was about time to be getting into third period, with all the ice drama and everything, and I _did_ have to deal with questions if I went back now. I also knew these thoughts were a little demon on my shoulder that should be named Reggie or something, mostly because I don't like that name, but I once met a guy named Reggie who said stuff that was pretty tempting. Yes, the little demon was definitely a Reggie.

Since I knew that if I began flying back to school I'd probably hover outside the building for a while in hesitation, go save a cat from a tree or something, and then come back, to find third period has passed. My problem with third period wasn't so much the class, because I really was getting along with math well now, but the teacher. Oh goodness.

Mrs. Havudon was an old lady who had to be at least fifty, but her wrinkles said older. She always smelled like old cigarettes, and her voice was raspy, so not one of us doubted she smoked in her free time, and she had the habit of bending down to help the person next to you when they had _definitely_ not asked for help, and sticking her old lady ass right in your face. I mean, I don't want to be all rude, but it's a little hard to make the most of those last seven minutes teachers always give you if you're trying to concentrate with a butt right next to your face.

Plus, she would always call me out in class when I didn't actually have the answer. I was doing a lot better in school this year, less distractions and everything. I didn't have a pretty goth girl sitting right behind me, either, so that kept me focused, though I wish Sam was still sitting behind me. I should go see her soon. I was getting about a B in math, no plus or minus added, which was pretty good. A's in most other classes were good too. Especially gym, since nobody knew what exactly Phantom looked like and there were no bullies like Dash Baxter who would faint if I actually achieved something. I _was_ on the swim team. Good upper body strength.

But teachers seem to like picking on you when you don't have your hand up. _Especially_ Mrs. Havudon. She would scan the entire class with her eyes, and for the few problems I couldn't work out in time for her liking, she would smile like she was actually helping me and call my name in a crooning voice. Always _Daniel, _not Danny or Icy or anything else. But what I think I loved most was the fact that there was another Daniel in that class, and everybody would always look to him first, see that he was sleeping, and then look to Mrs. Havudon to see if she really meant Daniel, since he never yielded any answers. Then, when they determined that yes, she did indeed mean Daniel, they would slowly look around the class until I got tired of watching their confusion and gave the answer.

Then, every _single_ time, their faces would go _Oh!_ Like they were surprised I had a real name besides Icy, since a few teachers had caught onto the trend, even, and started calling me that. That was pretty much my name around here, except to her, and even though Mrs. Havudon (who I was pretty sure was only married for a few years, if at all) used it often, nobody ever remembered it. Only Courtney and a few other cheerleaders remembered that my name was actually _Danny_, along with the people who made the little swim packets to hand to the people who watched the meets so they could know where their child was swimming. Of course, nobody ever came for me, but that was expected.

I also knew that I had to get back to school sometime today, because of the football game with Bakersfield, and nobody wanted to miss that. Plus, Trench was going to storm every house in the neighborhood until he found me and drag me by my ear there if I didn't show up for myself, and Courtney would probably agree with that action. So, yeah, I had to be there, and it might raise questions if I showed up for the football game and not actual school.

Since I knew I was going to delay until third period was over anyway, and my stomach was screaming since I hadn't actually gotten very much ectoplasm, just enough to be annoying, I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, spotted where I wanted, landed in an alley close, and transformed. I pulled out a twenty and slipped the wallet back into the pocket of my jeans, strolling into the donut shop.

The scent of the round iced pastries wiggled up my nose and yes, it was beautiful. The person at the counter was a girl not much older than me chewing a wad of gum while staring out the window with a bored and annoyed expression on her face. She must be a dropout, judging from her age.

As soon as the bell above the door rang when I came in, she shot me a lazy glance, and _froze. _At first I was worried that my ice powers were still at it and my hair was frozen or something, but I sent a quizzical glance at my reflection in the window she'd been staring at and nothing was out of the ordinary. Perhaps she thought something was strange with me.

"Hello," I said politely, a smile falling onto my face naturally. Her gum fell out of her mouth. "Can I get two glazed, one maple bar, and two apple fritters, to go, please?" I mean, it was a heck of a lot more than I was going to eat, but I liked donuts, and I could have them later. It's not like I needed as much actual nutrition, because ectoplasm was nutrients for me too. How to solve world hunger was to simply turn half the planet into halvas and throw them into the Ghost Zone. Would solve population problems too, since the Ghost Zone is an ever-expanding plane of existence with every ghost added.

The girl just stared at me. Just stared at me with her mouth open and a gross wad of pink chewing gum resting on the carpet. She didn't even pick it up. I wondered if she was having a stroke and snapped my fingers in front of her face. That seemed to help, since she came to life again, and shakily moved to grab what I had ordered. She finally managed to shove my order into a white bag and stutter out the price, which reached just under twenty, for which I was thankful, slapping the bill on the counter and grabbing the bag, yelling over my shoulder to keep the change. She kinda freaked me out.

I transformed out of sight, rocketing into the sky with the white donut bag clutched in my hands, and not even bothering to turn invisible since I was flying fast enough to be a mysterious blur, and I only flew long enough to get to a sky scraper. More accurately, the top corner of a skyscraper that couldn't been seen by anybody unless they had an air perspective. I sat down in my corner, legs dangling over the side, and felt a slight breeze blowing my white bangs across my forehead. I smiled. I was rarely able to be visible and white haired-green eyed anymore, so when nobody could see me, why not?

I set the bag of donuts on my lap and opened it, pulling out one of the glazed ones and putting it in my mouth. With my hands free, I closed the bag, folded the top over, and set it aside. I put my hand up and took the donut from my mouth, leaving a bit where it had been in my mouth. I savored the sweet, sugary taste, and, actually, the whole moment. Sure it was a pain getting thrown into buildings by difficult and powerful ghosts with anger management problems, but how many kids would be able to eat donuts on the outside of a skyscraper? Returning that, how many kids would have to run out of school during swim practice because they were unconsciously freezing the whole pool?

"Friend Danny!" I fell off the building in surprise, and only managed to reboot my flying powers after I fell a story. I had to dive another two levels to save my donut from hitting some poor pedestrian on the head. When I finally managed to sweep back up to where I had been sitting, I saw, of course, the source of the voice. A certain red-headed alien, floating there with her hands clasped.

"Hey," I panted, trying not to look too surprised or out of breath, which I was. "Hey, Starfire. Whoo, you snuck up on me."

She smiled and giggled a little bit, but I didn't think making me almost have a heart attack and then fall of a building was that entertaining. I couldn't stay mad at her, though, because she looked so innocent floating there. "Hello Friend Danny!" she sang, and flew over to me. "I did not expect to see you around so soon again."

"Yeah, me neither," I was really hoping that was the correct response to that statement, because either it didn't make very much sense, or my mind was racing enough so it couldn't make sense of it. "Hey," I offered, finally catching up to my senses, which had been racing ahead of me. "Why don't you sit down?" I floated back over to the ledge and took a seat again, rubbing a hand over my face, trying to regain my bearings. If only my ghost sense included Starfire.

She came over and sat next to my, staring curiously at the glazed donut I had practically crushed in my fist. I relaxed my fingers and took another bite of the donut, and Starfire tilted her head. I smiled incredulously and reached for the nearly forgotten white donut bag, holding it up for her to see, while discreetly shoving the rest of the crushed glazed donut in my face. "They're called donuts," I told her, actually managing to make it sound like my mouth wasn't totally full. I speed-chewed and swallowed, even though I should have probably chewed a little more because it kind of hurt when going down because my esophagus wasn't that big.

I reached into the bag and pulled out the maple bar, holding it out to her. "Here," I offered. "Try it."

Starfire slowly took the donut from my hand and bit into it gingerly, but her expression changed as soon as it passed her lips. Her eyes bulged out, almost comically, and her lips stretched into a joyous smile. "MMMMM!" she hummed enthusiastically, nodding quickly at me to tell me she liked it. I smiled.

"Yum!" she cheered when she successfully chewed her first bite, and then took another big one, like half of the thing.

"Hey!" I pulled her attention. "You might want to take smaller bites," I suggested. "It's easier that way, and it tastes better."

She nibbled on the edge, barely taking any of it with her, and I felt my eyebrow quirk upwards.

"No," I corrected, pulling the other glazed donut from the bag. "Just normal sized bites." I even demonstrated with the glazed donut for her, and she nodded, taking a normal bite of the donut and nodding appreciatively.

"Good," I praised, splitting the glazed donut in half and handing one half to her, since she'd nearly finished the maple bar. She popped the last bite of the maple bar in her mouth and started on her half of the glazed donut, the side without the bite mark. Absentmindedly, I took another bite of my half, mind wandering. Mostly to the subject of conversation between me and Courtney earlier.

Starfire finished off her half of the donut and I tossed the rest of mine into my mouth. I held open the bag for her, so she could grab a fritter, but she turned it down, shaking her head. I shrugged, because whatever, and closed the bag, setting it behind me on the ledge, and stared over the peaceful city which was still bustling with cars even though it was Friday and a work day. I knew that this was the time some businesses let their workers have lunch, so I wasn't too surprised with the cars.

"So," I began, looking to the tan girl swinging her legs next to me. "How'd you sleep last night?" Okay, so this had to be the lamest line ever, but I passed it off like it was cool, because I could handle it. Plus, she seemed to act like it was normal, so I just rolled with it.

"Very well," she replied, fiddling with her glove. "Thank you for the donuts."

"No problem," I replied, smiling easily. "My pleasure." I knew it was nearing he end of third period, and I should probably get going, but I really didn't want to deal with crazy teachers when I could be hanging out with a new friend. Especially after I just ate donuts with that new friend and I could probably persuade her to not incinerate me if ever that came to light. _When_ever that came to light.

"I must provide you with food the next time!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, drawing me from my thoughts of death and destruction by the girl next to me. Weird, because I did consider her a friend.

"That's not necessary," I told her, not wanting her to feel pressured.

"I wish to!" she sang.

"If you want to, I'd be happy to eat your food, but you don't need to," I didn't even fumble with a word. Very diplomatic. "I'm fine, but if you want…sure, I guess. I mean, yeah." Oh dang. Fumble. Not diplomatic. Smooth, Fenton. Smooth.

"I would want to," she assured me, and I smiled that she didn't think my stumbling through sentences was lame. Hmm, nice friend.

The screech of breaks drew both our attention and our gazes shot down to the street below, where, you guessed it, a robbery was taking place. I glanced over at Starfire just in time to see her whip out her communicator and rapidly fire information through it to Robin. I took a deep breath, considering my options, but before an actual decision was made, I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and pull me off the building into a free fall to the street below. Actually, more like a dive, since it was Starfire.

When we neared the street, she tossed me to the side, where I floated. "Stay safe," she instructed, and dove down to the street to capture the robber, who pulled a freaking machine gun. A _machine gun_. He aimed it at a little boy who was reaching out for his parents. The little boy had tears streaming down his face and I saw perverse pleasure on the scumbag's face, and I knew he wanted to pull the trigger. I saw his finger twitch an anticipation, and I knew that he would do it.

"Oh hell no!" I exclaimed, and dove after after Starfire, this time, not even bothering with invisibility.

**AW HELLZ NAH! WHOOOO! 'Nother chapter completed, called Mr. ELEVEN, (or maybe Ms.). DANNYSTAR FRIENDLINESS! YAY!**

**Because. . Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. . Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. Because. **

**UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	12. Chapter 12

**HAHAHAHA! It's like five in the morning and I am SO SORE because of middle school gym. WORK IT BABY! I did. I went maximum capacity for an hour yesterday, and it felt amazing, but now I am SO...FREAKING...SORE! AHHHH! ANd then I woke up a 2:38 thins morning and COULD NOT go back to sleep, and then the little copy/paste box freaked out on me, so yeah...cool story, bro.**

**Do you know what the nectar of the gods _really_ is? Two word answer: Coca Cola. MMMMMMM! Caffeine.**

**Four lines of lyrics from the song I'm listening to, just for pleasure:**

**I know your inside is feeling so hollow**

**And it's a hard pill for you to swallow**

**But if I fall for you, I'll never recover**

**If I fall for you, I'll never be the same**

**GUESS! If you wanna. FROOP! YAY**

**So...I guess I don't have much more to put here. I dunno. Did I mention I'm SORE! I know, I'm being a whiner-baby (Watched Sky High at 10 last night), but hey! Maybe I like being such as one and now I'm confused.**

**ENNNNNNNNNNNNNJOY!**

I ended up accidentally flashing the guy…That sounded really dirty.

I dove down after Starfire and passed her quickly because I flew faster than her, touching down lightly on the street right in front of the thief, grabbing the gun from him, and tossing it up into the air. Starfire snatched it by instinct because I'd thrown it in her direction, and then looked astounded when she saw me standing in front of the guy. The guy stared at me for a moment, and his puzzled look nearly made me smile. I would have smiled, but this guy had almost attempted murder. Then he bolted.

He let off a little screamy-whimpery sound and ran in the other direction, so I immediately leapt into the air and soared over him, and came down in front before Starfire could even react. I was mentally running a list of what powers I'd shown her to see which ones I could use. Definitely not any form of ecto-blast or ectoplasm that came from my hands or feet or, umm, referring to that one time, armpit or butt. _That_ was embarrassing. Tucker would _not_ stop laughing.

After leaping over and trapping the guy for the fifth time, he finally seemed to get it, and swung a fist at me. I was surprised and reached for the first power I'd rated as usable in this situation. My glow.

It's pretty hard to make your body's natural glow violent, but I think I did it with grace. The guy tried to punch me, so I ducked out of the way while attacking in my own way, and my natural glow flared up five-hundred percent, or more, lighting the alley we were in up so completely. I bet you could see it for miles up. The man screamed and, oh lord, I hoped I hadn't blinded him. I quickly stomped the glow out, but I was still glowing a little more than normal when it finally faded down to acceptable. You let a power loose and it just wants to keep going, I guess.

Starfire flew over to us just as I was helping the man up. He was blinking rapidly looking around at his surroundings, and I risked the question. "Uhh, sorry. D-did I accidentally blind you?"

The guy grunted in response, so I positioned myself in front of him, held up a finger like "be patient" to Starfire, and made like I was about to punch the guy in the face, stopping my fist right before it hit him. He flinched, so I guess he kinda had his sight back. Either that or he has _really_ good hearing.

"Good!" I cheered, because even if it really was the hearing, he'd be just fine. He could see with his ears. So I guess I'm okay. I turned to Starfire. "Uhh, what do we do now?"

It took about five seconds after that for me to hear the roar of the Titans' car's engine. The breaks were kind of squeaky when Cyborg slammed on them, and all the Titans just kind of tumbled out of the car and somehow landed on their feet.

Robin trounced over to us and, in a show of either amazing sleight of hand, or just plain magic, produced a pair of handcuffs out of thin air. He locked the thief's wrists, who was still blinking crazily and squinting at all of us, and I watched as they questioned him, if he had seen (or, rather, heard,) Phantom at all during this ordeal, which he had, but he didn't know that. The police _finally_ arrived, after what seemed like forever, and they handed the guy over to him. And then, all as one, which was kind of creepy, they wheeled on me, suspicious looks on their faces.

My arms flew up, showing my hands, and I felt a ridiculous expression form on my face. Okay, so my subconscious was _forcing_ me to mock them. How is that my fault?

Robin walked up to me, and was kinda overstepping his boundaries a little, so I took a small step back and smiled at him like I was the most innocent person in the world. Because, I mean, how am I not innocent? (this is the part where I toss my blonde-dyed hair over my shoulder and wave my pink-manicured hand dismissively.)

"Who are you?" he demanded, and I opened my mouth, but I found a female and accented voice in the air instead of my own, for which confused me a moment before I realized Starfire was speaking.

"Robin, this is Danny. He is my friend. I met him last night," Starfire supplied.

I tried to resist the urge to laugh, but it kinda came out anyway. "Well, that sounded naughty," I said, shrugging. "But yeah, that's the basis of it." I stuck my hand out. "Let's try this again. I'm Danny. Exactly how mad would you get if I quoted an old western movie and went '_new hero in town'_ ?" I flipped my bags out of my face for dramatic emphasis with a twitch of my neck, trying not to smile. I saw Beast Boy and Cyborg struggling with laughter, while Raven just floated there with a calm expression on her face. I smiled at her, trying to provoke a reaction. Nothing.

Robin took my hand and shook it firmly, his grip hard. I thought maybe he was trying to impress me by squishing my hand, but then realized that he was just being cautious because he half expected me to try and flip him or something. I smiled innocently at him and withdrew my hand. "Nice to meet you, Danny," he said finally, and I nodded.

"Likewise," I returned glancing around. "Do any of you know what time it is?" Of course, I didn't know the exact time, but this was just a ploy. I knew it was the beginning of the middle of forth period and I better get my ass to class before somebody got mad. Or the press showed up. That might happen soon, and even though some of these citizens might tell them about the mysterious white-haired hero who joined Starfire and nearly blinded the thief, I _really_ didn't want the whole city knowing what I looked like. Just in case one of them was color blind and hung around Jump City High School.

"Around eleven fifteen," Cyborg told me, looking at his arm.

I made a panic face, which was entirely an act. "Oh god!" I apologized, pushing myself into the air. "I've got to go. Like now. Bye!" I began flying off, and something occurred to me. I spun in the air, still flying in the same direction, but now backwards. "Oh, and I'm really, _really,_ sorry if I jacked that guy's vision. Bye!" I spun around again just in time to avoid running into a street pole, which would have made me seem a lot less cool and suave to them. I trusted Starfire to tell them all about me anyway, so I didn't have to stick around. I turned invisible as soon as I was out of their vision range, by turning a corner.

It was only when I made it back to school did I realize I left my apple fritters at the top of that sky scraper. Dang it.

* * *

"Come _on_!" Courtney demanded, pulling and tugging on my wrist like a crazy person and relentlessly almost-dragging me down the hallway towards the football field. "ICY!"

"I'm coming!" I told her, stepping away from the drinking fountain and releasing my sneakers' hold on the linoleum floor. I swear we left dust shadows because we sped out of there so fast.

Courtney only stopped long enough to determinedly throw me into Trench and tell him to not let me escape before sprinting for the girls' locker room. Trench raised an eyebrow at me, and I simply shrugged, shaking my head, and followed him to the stands.

We got reasonable seats, a few rows behind the football jocks' bench, and Trench pulled out a huge bucket of popcorn, which we immediately dug into. Waiting for the game to start? Pshhh…who does that?

"Ladies and Gentlemen," the announcer's voice, a girl named Shelby who sat behind me in English, boomed. "May I introduce the Home Team, the mighty, great, and powerful TITANS!" People irrupted to their feet all around me, our cheers deafening. At least to me, because my super-hearing was definitely complaining. I whistled to add to the festivities, and clapped raucously, but beyond that didn't do much.

"And the Visitor's Team," Shelby supplied. "The Bakersfield Vipers!" There was an equal amount of cheering, but from the other side of the field. Us over here, we were Titans. Not literally, of course, nobody except me had superpowers, or at least not that I knew of.

On the other side of the field, a banner of paper with the Bakersfield logo on it was displayed. I took another handful of popcorn from the bucket as the quarterback for Bakersfield broke through the barrier, a tall guy with crew-cut blonde hair, broad shoulders, and impressive muscles. I blinked for a moment, the alarm system at the back of my mind having gone off, but it vanished quickly, so whatever had set it off was no threat. Strange. The rest of the Bakersfield team came through while I was distracted, and I surveyed each one of them, looking for any remembrance, but nothing happened. Weird.

The game began, and I knew Trench was more occupied with watching his girlfriend do basket tosses and pyramids than actually watching the game or paying attention, so I did the natural thing. I did what any sane person would do in my situation. I stole his popcorn.

The Titans were putting up a good fight, but the quarterback for the Vipers was doing some pretty cool, and yet, weird stuff. He knew how to avoid, that was for sure. I don't know how, but he knew how to get around all those burly guys' tackles again and again. Avoid and evade. He was good at that tactic.

"Whoa!" I finally exclaimed, grabbing Trench's attention. "That guy is crazy good!"

"Who," he wondered. "The quarterback? Yeah. James's cousin lives in Bakersfield. Said the guy moved there a little while ago, and he was new talent. Their coach gobbled him up. Made him practice his butt off, but the guy is great. Bakersfield has been undefeated since he joined the team. James's cousin says that the coach didn't teach him how to avoid people like that though. He brought those skills on his own."

We both watched as the guy avoided three Titans (football players, of course) with only a couple of quick leg strokes and a near unbalance of weight.

"See!" Trench pointed out. "Crazy! How did he do that?" I kept my mouth shut, because the braggy part of my mind was telling me I could do that easy. Try avoiding about a billion tiny ghost mosquitos while airborne. Then talk to me.

"Crazy!" I agreed. "Do you know where he came from? Mars, perhaps?"

Trench laughed. "Yeah, probably. Crazy moves. Nah, James said something about coming from further east. Iowa. No. Not Indiana either. One of those I states." My back-of-the-mid warning system twitched again. I told it to shut up.

"Oh!" Trench snapped his fingers. I stuffed a handful of popcorn in my mouth. "Illinois. That was it. I think is name is Flash or something."

My eyes widened and I focused on the back of the quarterback's sports jersey. After a little bit of focus, I could clearly read the name BAXTER emblazoned on the back. The popcorn fell out of my mouth.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! In la first chapter, I did put Dash going to California. I BET ALL OF YOU DISREGARDED THAT (except the person that first brought it to _my_ attention. Thanks for that, by the way). DON'T WORRY! There IS a reason that I put Dash in the story, and I might come up with a better reason after that! YAY!**

**Untilllll nexttttt timeeeeee!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Looking for something to do because your weekend is wide open and you're bored? No homework and a world of possibilities with the internet? Well, look not further, my faithful readers and reviewers, THE NEXT CHAPTER IS HERE!**

**On a side note, you guys are totally lucky, because I have masses of homework. You know those tiered assignments teachers give out so often, those ones with different levels and due dates for a certain thing. Like, you get a C if you do this much, but if you do more, you get a B, and if you do a ridiculous amount of homework in two freaking days, you MIGHT get an A. Yeah, my english teacher assigned one of those, and of course I already did the C stuff, but now I've got to do the A and B stuff, _and_ she assigned _more_ stuff for Call of the Wild, which I've _already read_, but doing a twenty sentence letter about nothing while you have to throw in references about five places you've hardly heard of, ten objects you've never touched, and three somethings elses that I can't remember (i should probably check) even though your class hasn't even passed the first chapter of the book...ugh!**

**Wow, I'm complaining a _lot._ I'm kind of a nag...I should probably do my homework instead of just having fun with ellipses...ehh.**

**On _another_ side note, Elizabeth is an honorary mention to both my twin sister and my _best_ best friend for as long as fucking possible (BBFFALAFP) (Biffallafap?) Hmmm...did you hear me right? TWIN? Yeah, I think I might have mentioned her before, but in a different story. All of you know now. I don't know why I'm acting like it's a big deal. It's really not.**

**ANNNNNNYWHOO! So, I guess I should just let your read? I mean, I'm kind of boring and annoying to listen to.**

**ENJOY!**

At the end of the game, Courtney bounced up to us, asking how she did. Trench hugged her and told her she was amazing and beautiful. I muttered something about looking great and pushed past them and about a billion other people in approximately two seconds to get to the field. The game had ended with two points to the Titans, for which I was thankful, because not all the Vipers' players were clustered together.

I spotted the quarterback jersey over by the stands, talking with some of the Vipers' cheerleaders, no other football players around it. I sighed in relief, especially since now I knew I wasn't seeing anything, because I was well in range and still saw BAXTER across the back. I took a deep breath and started walking towards him.

"Icy?" A slightly sweaty hand caught my arm, and I turned and saw it was Courtney's, Trench right behind her. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," I reassured her. "Stay here. I'll be right back. Don't worry. There's nothing to worry about. I'm okay." The calm tone in my voice seemed to put her worries to rest, but I was anything but calm. I smiled softly, held up a finger, and motioned for them to shoo, nodding at Trench. They seemed to get that I was alright and made their way back to the concession stand. The smile broke and dropped of my face into pits of oblivion.

I wheeled around, sucking a deep breath through my mouth and started forward again, focused. A few more steps and I was close enough. "Dash?"

The quarterback turned around so fast it looked like height loose his balance. A few cheerleaders glanced me up and down, and one with tan skin and black hair wrinkled her nose in annoyance and maybe traced of disgust. I was wearing a school sweatshirt, of course. My own, from swimming, which Trench had forced over my head before Courtney arrived to try and pull my arm off. Another one, blonde-haired with a streak of pink through it, gave me a coy smile. I ignored them in favor of staring at the quarterback and confirming my suspicions.

The quarterback's mouth fell open as he stared at me, and I locked his familiar gaze with my own. After a minute of noncommittal stutters and squeaks and various other sounds, he finally managed, "D-Danny?"

It was kind of weird, not having him screaming "Fenton" at me. Instead actually calling me by my name. My real name.

I quirked a smile. "Hey," I greeted casually, trying not to triumphantly smirk at the black-haired cheerleader. "So…long time, no see, eh, Dash?"

"Yeah!" Dash agreed, and to my complete and utter surprise, enthusiastically grabbed my hand gangster-style and pulled me into a full on bro-hug, pounding me on the back almost painfully even with my high pain threshold and super-strength. "Fentonio!" Oh! There it is. "Great to see you again!"

"Whose your friend?" The blonde cheerleader wondered, fluttering her eyelashes at me. I felt kinda awkward.

"Oh!" Dash exclaimed, like just realizing the cheerleaders were still standing there. "Michelle, Rebecca, Elizabeth," he addressed them each in turn. "This is Danny. Danny, this is Michelle," the blonde one, "Rebecca," the black-haired one, "And Elizabeth," a red-haired one who smiled softly at me when I looked to her, but not like she was flirting. Just friendly. Dash leaned in. "Elizabeth's my girlfriend," he whispered, and I knew that Elizabeth had heard because she looked to me slightly curious, like she wanted to see my reaction.

"Cool," I said to Dash, looking Elizabeth up and down. She was a nice looking girl, her red hair loose around her shoulders. She grinned at me, and I smiled back. "Nice to meet you," I said to all of them.

"Yeah," Michelle purred, and I took a small step back, because frankly, no. Just no.

Rebecca smirked at me, kinda bitchy-like. "Mmhmm," she grumbled in agreement. Elizabeth nodded enthusiastically, smiling broadly.

'Wait," Dash said, holding up his hands. He pointed a single finger at me. "You're in Jump?" He squinted at the sweatshirt. "Swim team?" He stood up straight, giving me a weird look. "Swim team?"

"Swim team," I confirmed. "Weird, I know. But hey, Sam and Tuck aren't here occupying all my time, so I need a hobby."

"Yeah," Dash agreed. "How are they doing, by the way?"

I shrugged. "I actually don't know. We lost a lot of stuff with that whole thing, and my cell phone got crushed by an attack in Jump, and I'm just so busy. I haven't been able to contact either of them in a few months." It struck me that I was chatting casually with somebody who used to make my life completely and utterly miserable. I pushed the thought away.

Dash's eyes widened. "Dude, no! You gave to be able to contact that goth chick. There's a still-running bet that you and she'll get together by graduation. Here. Dude. You can borrow my cell." He rummaged around his jersey for a second before Elizabeth rolled her eyes and silently held out her phone. I'm only assuming it was her phone because it was pink and white, and I don't think that would be Dash's phone. She then gestured in the direction of a couple other football guys.

"Oh," Dash said, embarrassed. "Yeah, right. I forgot. I left it with them. Thanks Liz!"

Elizabeth nodded and set her cell phone into my palm. I smiled thankfully at her and dialed the familiar number in, buzzing with adrenaline. It began calling and I gave a small wave to Dash, putting the phone up to my ear and walking several meters away from anybody. It was picked up in the middle of the third ring.

"Hello?" the familiar voice wondered, and my heartbeat quickened.

"Hey," I said, trying to sound casual but not only failing, but failing majorly.

There was a pregnant pause on the end, but I didn't doubt that I'd called the right number. Her voice over the phone was the same. "Danny?" she said finally, and a smile broke out over my face.

"Yeah," I confirmed to her. "Yeah. Look, I don't wan tot make excuses, but I split from my parents and I didn't have much money beyond what they gave me from that first thing and I was trying to work up enough cash to get a new cell phone, since my old one got crushed but-"

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "Calm down. Jazz called me. Oh, and I had a feeling that your cell phone got demolished. Stuff like that happens, and you would have at least called Tucker if you couldn't. Where are you, anyway?"

"Jump City," I replied, hand subconsciously going up to rub the back of my neck.

"The place with the other people?" she wondered. "Titans, right?"

'Yeah," I confirmed. "I've actually made friends with one of them. Starfire. She's innocent and sweet and loving. She's nice."

"Nice?" Sam wondered.

"Nice." I repeated. "So how's Miami? You getting a nice tan?"

"Somehow," the voice replied. "No. Not at all. I've managed to use copious amounts of real quality sunscreen and remain as pale as ever, maybe even more so."

"Cool," I replied, a smile stretching across my face ever-wider. "I can't imagine you with a tan."

Sam snorted. "Me neither," she agreed. There was a comfortable pause for a little while. Then, "So, do you think I'll be able to see you soon?"

"You're all the way across the country," I murmured sadly. "I dunno. I don't have a phone. In fact, I ran into _Dash_ and his girlfriend let me borrow her phone."

"Wait, wait!" Sam laughed a little. "Dash Baxter? Hmm, I guess that's not too much of a coincidence. He did move to California for a great football opportunity. Where?"

"Bakersfield," I responded.

"How's his girlfriend?" Sam wondered. "Paulina-ish?"

"I'm not sure," I replied, stealing another glance at Elizabeth. "She seems nice enough, and she interacts freely with everybody else, including Dash, me, and a few other cheerleaders, including one who is kinda Paulina-ish. But she hasn't spoken a word to me the entire time."

"Hmmm," Sam hummed, deliberating. "Maybe she can't."

"What?" I wondered.

"Maybe she's mute," Sam supplied. "Does it seem like she's used to not talking?"

I considered. "Yeah, actually, that seems like the case. Weird. The old Dash wouldn't date a mute cheerleader."

"Yeah. So what have you been up to?" Sam asked. "Not very many ghosts, so you have to have a hobby if you don't have a phone."

"I catch thieves," I replied. "There's an abundance of them in Jump, a ridiculous abundance. It's like they're multiplying!"

Sam laughed. "Gotta watch out for those multiplying criminals. Anything else?"

"Yeah," I confessed. "I joined the swim team."

"Swim team?" Sam chortled. "But I thought you didn't like showing off your bare chest. Muscles and modesty and such."

"I wear a muscle shirt," I defended. "Plus, there is nothing wrong with being modest. At least I'm not walking around flashing my genitals to anybody."

"Who goes around flashing their genitals?" Sam wondered, a note of incredulity in her voice.

"I don't know," I replied. "Why are you asking me?"

"You said it," she pointed out. "Not me." A pause. "So how are you on the swim team? Good?"

"Pretty good," I answered. "Except when I accidentally almost froze the entire pool to my body this morning."

"Yikes!" Sam exclaimed. "Can't you keep them in check? Them being the ice powers."

"I guess I was just excited and distracted this morning," I excused, feeling a blush come to my cheeks.

"Hmm," Sam hummed, and I knew she knew there was something else there, but she didn't push, which was nice. "So any new friends?"

"A couple named Trench and Courtney," I responded. "They're nice. Courtney's a cheerleader, and both of them are on swim team with me. Courtney's pretty nice, comparing to other cheerleaders. Trench is a huge African American dude who looks pretty intimidating if you don't know him, but he's nice. You?"

"A punk girl named Sophie who helped me get a job at the local book store. She's cool."

"I'm happy you're making friends," I told her.

"Cool," she replied, and not hint of jealousy or disapproval in her tone either. Not that I was expecting that, of course, but just in case. "Any ghost troubles?"

I chuckled. "Now that you mention it, I think i've found a temporary pet. His name is Nargle. Yesterday a bunch of the girls freaked out so Trench dragged me into the girls' locker room and we found him on the floor. I took him home and gave him some pure ectoplasm and even used that ghost language book you gave me to try and talk with him. It didn't really work, since I don't think he can talk, but the ghost language drawing thing you came across definitely worked. I think he's pretty cute."

"Poor you," Sam sympathized. "You're probably running out of ectoplasm. I bet you could visit the Bermuda Triangle and get some. I'm in Florida, so you could do it _when_ you're visiting me."

"Hmm, maybe," I found that a coy smile had crept onto my face unnoticed.

"Or, I guess, you could just grab some from your parents," she supplied with a sigh.

"Well, I don't know about the Bermuda Triangle. That might be a little dangerous. Remember that sometimes it leads to different time periods when you head through it again? But, hey, I did like the idea of seeing you."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, me too. Listen, ghost boy. I better see your face soon. I mean _soon_ soon. Got it?"

"Got it," I confirmed.

"Hey," she said. "I wish we could talk forever, but I have Sophie waiting for me and tapping her foot impatiently, and you did borrow this phone, so I guess we should cut this short."

"Yeah," I reluctantly agreed. "I guess."

"You are visiting me soon," Sam demanded. "Promise?"

"I promise," I swore, meaning it so hard it wasn't even funny.

"I'm sorry, Danny," she pleaded. "I have to go. Find a way to call me soon?"

"I will," I reassured her. "Go. You'll hear from me soon. Bye."

"Bye," she murmured into the receiver.

"Bye," I repeated.

"Bye," she parroted.

"O-okay, so I guess Im just going to hang up now," I said, trying to avoid standing there for all eternity repeating the same word.

"Kay, you do that," she said.

"Alright, bye," I muttered, and regretfully took the phone from my ear, pressing the "end call" button. I lifted the phone to my face again and whispered, "Love you," into the receiver before sighing and turning to go give Elizabeth back her phone.

I handed it back to her. "Thanks," I murmured, and she smiled and nodded. Definitely mute. Dash dating a cheerleader was not a huge surprise, but a cheerleader who was unable to speak, or, uhm, cheer? A step up for him. At least in my book.

"Icy!" I heard Trench's voice bellow, and saw him coming my direction with Courtney, a few other swim team guys tailing him.

"Hey!" I greeted enthusiastically, about a billion times happier since I'd called Sam.

He shot Dash a suspicious look, and I immediately knew what was going to happen. A confrontation. Especially looking at the swim team guys' stances. Hopefully, first, they were going to try and draw me away.

"Courtney and I thought you might want some food. I'll pay," Trench offered, and I nearly grinned. Phase two!

"Yeah, okay, I was just getting done here." I turned to Dash. "Bye Dash! Thanks for letting me borrow your phone, or, uhm, Elizabeth's phone. Thanks Elizabeth. I gotta run, though."

"Bye!" Dash cheered, oblivious to the tension but still being uncharacteristically nice. He was like a new person. I had a sneaking suspicion Elizabeth had at least a little bit to do with that. "How'd the call go?"

A full smile split my face. "Great," I replied. "Thanks!" I turned my back after one last wave and headed off with Trench at Courtney at my sides.

"Call?" Trench wondered.

"I don't have a cell phone," I replied. "Dash let me borrow his. I called Sam." I didn't even have to look at their faces to see their surprised expressions, and I quickened my pace, strolling past them and sending a quick wave over my shoulder. It was getting late, and I had a little ghost monster to feed.

**Dash seemed way to nice, didn't he? I think maybe. I was hoping Elizabeth would be like an explanation for that, but she may have just added to the problem.**

**I decided we needed some Sam up in here right now. It was messy and awkward though. I'll try to fix that later. SPRING SPRING SPRING-ITY SPRING! I ONLY HAVE ONE WEEK LEFT UNTIL SPRING SPRING SPRING-ITY BREAK! Whooooooop!**

**Also, maybe it was a little stupid to have a mute cheerleader. I didn't exactly think that one through. Hmm...but I guess if she can flip really well and stuff.**

**I'm kinda wandering towards adding a little bully action to the story. I also kinda want to know who James (from the previous chapter) is. Maybe meet some of Courtney's cheerleading friends?**

**I'd put up a poll, but I've made, like, twelve different and completely random polls and I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO PUT THEM ON MY PROFILE!**

**I'm being boring again. So, I guess it's UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	14. Chapter 41

**PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE INFORMATION BELOW! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT!**

**SOPA's is back _again_! OH MY GOODNESS! We need 100,000 signatures, and we're going to try and handle this quietly, but OH MY GOSH I AM NOT LETTING THEM WIN! AHHH!**

**.gov/ petition/ stop-sopa-2014/ q0Vkk0Zr**

**(take out the spaces, by the way)**

**AHHH!**

**I _would_ assume that all of you know what SOPA is, but since I didn't until last year, I'll explain. This is highly opinionated, by the way.**

**SOPA is, as what I can see, an annoying organization that get's in innocent fanfiction writers', drawers', and others' faces. If they pass their act, there is a chance that all sites like FanFiction, deviantart, and tumblr will be taken down, and people who make fanart or fanfictions could get in _serious_ trouble.**

**That's totally unfair! The petition needs 100,000 votes before March 19th. It has, like, 14, 300 signatures, maybe more, right now. Come on!**

**AGAIN!**

**.gov/ petition/ stop-sopa-2014/ q0Vkk0Zr**

**.**

**.**

**Okay...on a completely different matter, this is the next chapter!**

**There was a bit of a time skip here, because I was going to do every day, but that would have been very boring. Just please try and comprende, mmkay? YAY! Rhyming!**

**Also, I think I may have made up some words that don't exist, because it's giving me the little red squiggly thing, but I totally remember orange-ish being, while not necessarily a word, usable enough.**

**Also, there might be a little more dirty language than normal. You wanna know why? A FUCKING BOMB THREAT! ON MY SCHOOL! AND IT'S Spring Break and SNOWING! SO I waited for seventy five minutes outside in the snow while walking around pointlessly because some idiot called in a fake bomb threat. Jesus.**

**Also, I have to make up the day in the summer. :(**

**Okay, ...ENJOY!**

It was a little over two weeks before something went wrong. I kept seeing Starfire and even met the other Titans and hung out with them for a little. Just a little more time and maybe things wouldn't have gotten as bad and twisted as it did.

Myself, in fact, was just leaving a fifteen minute accidental but friendly and overall enjoyable meeting with the Titans when the store alarm went off. My head immediately swiveled, and my eyes locked on the running black-clad figure sprinting away from a guy in an electric orange vest screaming angrily in Russian. I was glad he didn't know Russian, because I was pretty sure I didn't want to know what was coming out of that guy's mouth.

My immediate reaction was to roll my eyes, because it was Sunday, and I'd already caught two of these guys. I was also really glad that the thieves chose weekend days to be the days when they all decided to go out and just take stuff, because if it was weekdays, I didn't know how the heck I was ever going to get my high school diploma.

I sprinted away from the Titans, of course, who were leaping into action, and into a nearby alley. Most of the pedestrians were staring at the robbery, but those that did see me paid me no mind. Apparently, nobody had paid any heed when I had turned up the wattage on that crazy moron with the machine gun a little while ago, because nobody paid attention to the white-haired teenager speeding past them. They thought I was just an overly-enthusiastic Teen Titans fan, even when they saw me-on seldom occasions-in public with the Titans. That was like, Amity Park clueless level.

I let invisibility overtake me and rocketed after the thief, who'd turned down a dark alley, probably hoping to hide from the Titans, or Phantom. Didn't he know Phantom liked the shadows? Amateur.

I followed after the thief and saw that the alley was actually a dead end. I shook my head sadly. This was almost _too _easy. My fingers spread wide and a nice glob of adhesive ectoplasm formed, but I refrained from shooting it just then. Where the heck were the Titans? They'd been _right on the scene_. They could have made it before I did. Where _were_ they?

After about thirty seconds of watching the thief dart around and look for an exit without going back the way he came-which was kind of stupid, in my opinion-I got really tired of waiting. Apparently the Teen Titans were lazy slow pokes who would let an idiot of a thief get away with some poor Russian's stuff. Oh well. More time for stupid jokes!

I didn't miss, and the glob of sticky ectoplasm nailed the thief's foot, sending him sprawling because his momentum carried him further. Oops. Oh well. I prepared another blast of goop in my hand while he scrambled to him feet. His eyes darted to the ectoplasm, and tracked a path straight up the angle of which I'd shot it to my left shoulder. Oh crap. Maybe this guy wasn't so dumb.

I expected him to say something, so I was justifiably surprised when, instead of any words, the guy just whipped something out of his sleeve and pointed it at me. Projectiles came twirling in my direction.

I desperately grasped for intangibility and I lunged to the left-not my smartest move, since he'd seen the left shoulder-and dodged the little arrows coming in my direction. One of the arrows clipped my right shoulder, and I expected poison at the most, but as soon as contact was made, the little arrow sparked with as much electricity as you can cram into something that size.

My mind suddenly darted back to the accident, even thought this was a lot less pain and a lot less electricity. I didn't really like the thought of being electrocuted. A scream tore itself from my raw throat and I stumbled away, desperately trying to not let the little bugger know my exact location. _Electric darts?!_ Why?

Another arrow got my, this one on the thigh of my left leg. It lodged itself there, as apposed to the other arrow, which had just been in passing. The amount of energy nearly blasted me back, and I roared so loud for a minute I was afraid I was Wailing. I _hated_ electricity.

I dropped to my hands and knees when the charge ended, too pissed to care that I was no longer laying low in the shadows, or that my invisibility had fled. I grit my teeth and pushed myself to my feet, glaring at the little twit who'd near electrocuted me. I could tell both my his soft gasp and bulging eyes and the intensity that I felt that my eyes weren't just green irises anymore. The pupil had probably been engulfed. _Get me a little more angry,_ I thought, _and the whites will go away too._

"Great job, Enrique!" I heard a familiar male voice proclaim. A blast of orange-ish energy came from behind me and hit the ectoplasm, messing it up just enough for 'Enrique' to pry his foot from the pavement and set off running, leaving the loot, giving me one last terrified glance.

I spun, and when I saw the people that stood behind me, a fresh blast of fury, accompanied by a little betrayal, shot through me and I knew my eyes momentarily charged up almost enough to go laser mode.

"You set me up," I ground out, fighting against the thunderstorm of negative emotions blasting through me full maximum.

Starfire's hand flittered in front of her face like a butterfly with a broken wing, shock etched on eery feature. "Danny…?" she whispered. Her face was a mask of hurt.

"You set me up!" I said again, some of my rage forcing itself into those words. I glared at the Teen Titans, breathing becoming more labored, my shoulders hunching menacingly. There was an immense amount of rage, only empowered by the hurt and betrayal behind it, and the realization that they'd never really known me in the first place. They weren't my friends. The only friends I had were in Kansas and Miami. I was alone.

"No way…" Cyborg trailed off, eyes bulging while he took in the full sight of their long-time mysterious adversary Phantom and their short-time new friend Danny, in the same body and the same image. My eyes were bleeding green light. My emotional center core in my brain felt like it was about to burst. I didn't really know if I'd mind or not.

"No way Phantom is Danny!" Beast Boy yelped. Part of my was screaming in very loud words for blood and revenge, while another part just wanted to curl up in a ball right then and there and deal with the tornado of crap going down in my head in a non-aggressive way. I chose neither.

"You. Set. Me. UP!" I growled, and felt the slightest tinge of a Wail in the last word. I clamped my mouth shut. Nobody but Dark Dan deserved a point-blank Wail, especially if I'd considered them friends five minus ago, and was even hanging out with them.

Robin raised his hands in a gesture of peace. He didn't want to fight, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was pretty sure he'd win if it got down to it. He only knew about invisibility and glowing. I might not be able to defeat all five Teen Titans, or maybe even three, but I could definitely phase through the wall for a hasty retreat. "Look, Danny," he began in a calming tone, talking to me as if I were a slightly wild dog. "We just want to talk."

I resisted the urge to scream about them setting me up, because apparently that was the only thing I could say right now. I gritted my teeth and forced my tongue to vocalize the words I wanted. "Sorry, _buddy,_" I poured all my pique into that word alone. "I _don't_ want to talk. I know everything I need to know." My sentences were clipped. Every last sound before the period was as sharp as a razor blade, and cut through the air, but not through the tension.

"Phantom-" Raven began, but I swiveled toward her, eyes flaring so furiously I could see the faint green light coating the alley.

"It's _DANNY!I" _I felt my voice pitch for the Wail again. Wow. I must feel really screwed. I know that my emotions were a confused parade of _hey, fuck you!_ but other than that, I couldn't really pick out words to describe the intensity. My ghost half had always amplified my emotions, but this was insane! "I tried with you!" I snapped. "I _helped_ you with your stupid little thief _infestation_! What's my thanks? Betrayal and death by electricity? That second charge could have killed a normal human! You should be damn well glad I'm not dead!"

Beast Boy whimpered. Cyborg's eyes were wide. Starfire's hands were over her mouth. Even Raven-who I'd learned _could_ show emotion-looked a little stunned. I stared straight into Robin's mask, where I knew his eyes glittered beneath. "_Don't _follow me," I instructed, wrestling down with the huge thundercloud of crap surging through me. I knew I wasn't going to be in the win for a long time, so I turned invisible and sped at nearly sonic speeds towards the edge of the city.

I barely made it into the sparse woods before the dense explosion. I let my rage power me and felt my hands fire up, burning hot with unused ecto-fury. The little Sam on my shoulder told me to not destroy the trees, so I aimed for any rock I could find, blowing them into tiny shards of shrapnel that flew in every which way, some even cutting me. The tiny arrow was still sticking out of my thigh. I pulled it out and blasted it to pieces too.

I finally found a rock structure about four times my height and even wider in width and nearly grinned, except for the inner turmoil. This was perfect.

I let rage, sorrow, pain, betrayal, hurt, grief, and pure devastation pour out of me into perfectly aimed and powered blasts. Anything from smooth ice disks to adhesive ectoplasm to the occasional ecto-bomb. A Wail ached in the back of my throat, but I swallowed it, settling for a regular scream instead, but it was still pretty loud, and since my voice was echo-y in ghost form, it definitely sounded like a ghostly howl. If any of the Teen Titans had dared follow me, they'd definitely be spooked off by that, never mind the sounds of pure destruction coming from my direction. I almost felt bad for any lost hikers.

My eyes blazed, and I grinned wickedly, sending the laser eyes that had been aching to emerge straight at the rock structure, and boring a hole straight through the stone. Then i powered my fists up with both healing and destructive energy and made full contact with the rock, fist colliding and sending yet more shrapnel flying everywhere. The ground was already littered with broken rock.

After about seven minutes of killing the rock in any way possible, I realized that a scream was no longer erupting from my throat. Laughter was bubbling up. I felt better than I had in a long time. That confrontation had brought to the surface all my annoyance and hatred and pain of not only the Titans chasing me while I was chasing thieves, the aggravation from said stupid thieves, and, most importantly, every buried emotion I'd shoved down from the Veritonee incident.

That idiot ruined my town! That moron called me a worthy opponent! That dolt thought he could stand up to me! That nitwit had tried to kill my entire town! That dunderhead had tried to murder a ghost! That _asshole_ had destroyed my friendship, desecrated my family, and made me into a nervous reck for the longest time. I had to live in a crappy one room apartment with ectoplasm depravation because that air-headed flake had decided Amity Park was a nice place to start a toxic rebellion against the people who'd locked him up!

The rock I was pretending was _Veritonee's_ face blast apart with one last super-powered punch, and rock shards flew everywhere. A shallow piece slashed across my cheek, and the skin on my knuckles was torn and ripped into a green mess. I didn't care. I collapsed onto the bed on rock bits and pieces that had formed and sighed. My fast healing took over, mending all the minor injuries. They were all minor injuries.

I was heaving wild breaths, and I knew there was rock dust in my normally white hair and coating my skin. I still couldn't bring myself to do anything but lie there and laugh. I felt elevated. Cleansed. I'd finally gotten it out. All it took was some ghost-on-rock assault and a serious betrayal. And who said violence wasn't the answer?

I knew I had to deal with some deep shit, the Titans finally seeing the face of Phantom. Not cool. But that could wait, because right now I was cool with lying here and letting the adrenaline course out of me. I just hoped no mysterious and probably very confused hikers were hiding in the trees, watching me. I felt great.

I ran a rock dust-encrusted hand through my rock dust coated hair, shaking rock dust from both of them. Then I pried a piece of sharp and kind of uncomfortable rock from underneath me and threw it up into the air, lazily forming a finger gun and blasting it apart with perfect aim without much effort. I folded my other arm beneath me head and grabbed another piece of rock, shooting a green beam out of my fingertip and nailing it, making it explode apart into grayish dust and gently float down to coat my jumpsuit in gray.

I repeated the process several times before my arm got tired, so I switched arms. I had to have done it fifteen times with that arm-never missing, too-before realizing that my arm wouldn't get tired if I tossed with one hand and shot with the other. I made a pillow out of a rotted chunk of tree stump and some moss and continued to shoot rock, alternating my hands' jobs every shot.

The anger and adrenaline faded out of me, and left a calm and casual Danny Phantom lying on the forest floor and improving his finger strength and ecto-beam aim. The grinstretched across my face was so wide I thought it might shatter my features. I knew the smile would drop, though, when I was forced to face reality and think up a way out of this rather sticky situation I'd managed to worm my way into.

But right now? Right now I didn't have to worry about a thing. Because I was momentarily closed off from anyone and everyone and I was facing my inner demons about Mr. Veritonee. Jazz would be so proud!

The Titans could wait. The thieves could wait. Nargle and Courtney and Trench could wait. School could wait. Swimming could wait. Danny or Phantom or Icy or Fenton, whatever you called me. Well, Danny/Icy/Phantom/Fenton was taking a short break from the crapstorm he called his life.

**Heh. Sooo...**

**I totally put scjool there in that last paragraph instead of school. That's not the funny part. The weird part is that I noticed it, and for like a minute I thought it was a real word _and_ the word i meant to put there. It's late.**

**I should go to sleep. I hope you liked this. UuNnTtIiLl NnEeXxTt TtIiMmEe!**


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